Hunt
by White Angel of Auralon
Summary: Harry had noticed a lot of things that didn't add up around him. He did something about it. When Ron left the tent during the hunt for the horcruxes, he finally manages to get the true Hermione back. With a better plan they start the hunt anew.
1. Flushing Potion

**Hello everybody. This is my Christmas Story for this year. As always, I don't own anything of the Harry Potter universe. And for the Harmony fans among you, this story has a Harry / Hermione Pairing. I hope you like it. Updates will be every day until New Year's Eve.**

**Happy Reading.**

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><p><strong>Flushing Potion<strong>

Harry looked at the exit of the tent dispassionately. His supposed best friend, Ron Weasley, had just left him and Hermione alone on the hunt for the horcruxes. He knew that he should be more upset about this fact, but he truly couldn't be. Not when he had wished that Ron hadn't come with them in the first place. Harry may be many things, but stupid and blind wasn't one of them. He had been wary of Ron ever since the temper tantrum he had thrown over the Triwizard mess. Ron hadn't just not believed him when he told him that he hadn't put his name into the Goblet of Fire, he had actively badmouthed Harry when he thought he wouldn't hear about it. Ron was to a part a fair-weather friend.

Whenever the going got really hard, he would look for the easiest way out. And he had a major sense of entitlement, something that reminded Harry badly of his cousin Dudley. While Ron would stand by Harry's side when things weren't too bad, like for example standing by his side when the school believed the Prophet, but when Ron knew that Voldemort was really back and in the end he would be seen as having been right the whole time, he always stepped back when it got hard. And his one major flaw was that he didn't even try to get over hard incidents without making a major drama out of things. A lot of situations came to mind. Scabbers vanishing, the naming of Harry a Triwizard champion, the Yule Ball where Hermione had gone with Krum, having to clean Grimmauld Place without magic, not doing his duty as a prefect properly, envy for Harry getting the Quidditch captaincy over him, Ginny snogging Dean, his whole relationship with Lavender and the lack of food on the hunt were just the first things that came to Harry's mind.

Hermione was crying her eyes out over the fact that Ron had left over the argument with Harry's lack of a plan. Well, he had expected something like that with how Ron had played a dirty game on the side of the hunt. Harry went over to his bed, pulled out his backpack from under it and looked through it for a set of vials that he kept on hand. Ron thought that it was something else, but then again he had never been any good at Potions without Hermione's help. While Harry would freely admit that Hermione's understanding of the subject was way better than his, he wasn't a slouch either. And no, his grades last year hadn't solely been the work of the book. He knew a few things about brewing potions and if he had a proper recipe he was a good brewer.

He had realised during the year that something was wrong with him. Why would he suddenly, out of the blue, develop strong feelings for Ginny? And that when he had been crushing on another girl for two years by then. No, it didn't make sense and he had suspected foul play. When Hermione mentioned that a lot of witches had bought Fred and George's love potions and were trying to slip him some, he had found a direction to investigate. Being a favourite of Slughorn proved useful then and the old Professor had told Harry how to determine if you were under a love potion, even if he was chuckling at the thought.

Harry had found out that there was indeed a number of potions in his system, and he decided that they all needed to be neutralised. Therefore he went to Madam Pomfrey to ask for a complete flushing of his system, reasoning that he couldn't be under several love potions. She agreed and he spent one miserable night at the hospital wing, while his body was cleansed of all the potions that he had inside of him. He had to vomit several times that night, worrying Madam Pomfrey a lot. She only told him once he was done that normally the process took two hours to get done, not a whole night. There had to have been more potions in him than just a few love potions.

As a result she showed him how to brew a general immunisation potion against all kinds of potions that could reasonably be used against him without causing too much suspicion. He was to take one of them each week to prevent a repeat. Harry gladly did that. And without the influence of the potions he started seeing things a lot more clearly. Suddenly he didn't have trouble understanding his lessons. He could grasp concepts presented in class easily and perform the required spells quickly. It was incredible. He wondered why anybody would want to restrict his ability to learn, but then he thought of how much of an advantage Death Eaters and Voldemort would see in that. Snape was a likely suspect.

So Harry decided to not tip his hand too early on. He used the Room of Requirement secretly to train his abilities in casting and hand to hand combat. He included all kinds of spells to learn them, not just restricting his studies to mostly DADA, like he had done before. Charms and Transfiguration offered lots of possibilities in a fight. He also picked Neville's brain for nasty plants that could give you an advantage in a battle if you had the chance to prepare the field. He went over the complete curriculum of the previous years to catch up on whatever he had missed, which sadly was too much for his personal comfort. Now, without the potions, he wondered how he could have been so stupid to not learn everything he could when he knew that Voldemort was after him.

Thankfully he had caught onto the problem early enough and used the whole year to remedy the problem. He was much better at magic than Ron and Hermione knew. And he had used the time during the hunt, especially while they had still stayed at Grimmauld Place, to continue his studies. He needed to be ready.

His supply of premade potions included both his precaution potion as well as the flushing potion that Madam Pomfrey had given him. There were a few others, like a common headache potion, pepper up potion, pain potion, hangover potion, a good supply of polyjuice, he had even nicked a few vials of veritaserum from Slughorn's personal stock. That had been very easy, as he had had a whole cauldron in class for his demonstration at the beginning of their sixth year. Much better to let a Potions Master brew something as delicate as that, than to attempt it yourself. He would say that he could brew any kind of NEWT level potion perfectly if he had time and peace, but veritaserum could go horribly wrong if you messed up even one step. It wasn't NEWT level, it was what a Potions Master learned to do during his apprenticeship.

Harry hadn't gone onto this hunt blindly. He had tried to prepare for all kinds of situations. The one thing he didn't take into account was Ron's immense appetite and his lack of restraint. The food that they had got would have lasted the three of them for a month, had they just been careful. But thanks to Ron always complaining about the lack of food, Hermione had caved in and prepared more than what was advisable. Well, now the git was gone and he could test his theory.

He walked over to Hermione and handed her a vial with the flushing potion.

"Drink this, Hermione. It'll help," he said gently.

Hermione looked at him with red, puffy eyes and simply took the potion. She gulped the whole vial down before she convulsed. Harry knew the symptoms. He had gone through them himself. He knew that within twenty minutes she would start vomiting the potions out. He lifted her bridal style and carried her to her bed.

"I'm sorry that you're going to feel horrible for the next hours, but you need to get the potions out of your system quickly," he apologised and transfigured a stone into a stone bucket. With keeping the material the bucket wouldn't suddenly lose the transformation while Hermione was still using it.

Hermione whimpered and Harry tried his best to simply be there for her. He got some water from the river and cleaned off the sweat that was on her face regularly. He had feared that she was under as many potions as he had been and the six hours that it took for her to stop vomiting were proof of that. She finally fell asleep at three in the morning and Harry vanished the bucket with all of her vomit. He would see what kind of potions she had had in her system when she woke up again. Now they only had to move to a safer location. Ron knew about this spot and while he would need a few hours to cool down, he would try to come back and Harry wasn't keen on that.

So he packed all their belongings into Hermione's bag before he carried Hermione out, wrapped in a blanket. He was sure that she wouldn't wake for a few hours, no matter what happened. He used his magic to pack the tent and then stored it in the bag as well. Lifting Hermione again, he spun on the spot and left the place for another one that he had heard about from the Dursleys when he had been seven. It was time for them to take a few days off from the horcrux hunt. And at this time of the year no muggles would be at the place he had decided to go to. Who would after all look for the Boy-Who-Lived in a muggle area? Yes, the Centre Parcs in Suffolk would not be a place where any snatcher would look for them.

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><p>Hermione woke up with a groan. She felt horrible. What the hell had happened to her? She tried remembering, but her head was spinning.<p>

"Here, this'll soothe your stomach after all the vomiting you did," she heard a soft voice next to her.

Yes, soothing her stomach sounded like a great idea. She took the vial held to her mouth and swallowed the content. It took about five minutes, perhaps more, as she didn't really trust her sense for time, for her to get back to thinking clearly. Then a feeling of fury started up in her. Several things suddenly flashed in front of her eyes, all of them showing her completely out of character. She tried sitting up abruptly, but a firm hand on her shoulder kept her lying down.

"Don't sit up yet. Believe me, it isn't good to do that," the voice insisted.

She managed to open her eyes and saw the worried face of her one true best friend, Harry.

"What happened, Harry? My memories are all over the place," she asked.

Harry sighed and sat back in the chair next to her bed. Looking around she noticed that the place wasn't the tent they had lived in for about a month now. For one there were walls of wood to the room and the beds were solid with fairly comfortable matrasses as she noticed. And she felt warmer than in a while.

"Where are we?" She added to her list of questions.

"Well, the where is easy to answer. We're at Elveden Forest, at a bungalow of the local Centre Parcs. I have thought of finding a better place to stay for a while, and the season where the muggles keep the park open is over for the year, so we should be undisturbed by anybody if we're careful. I know of this kind of place thanks to the Dursleys once going to one on vacation because a classmate of Dudley had praised the vacation he and his parents had had here. Aunt Petunia and Dudley didn't like it at all and never went again, as they missed too many luxury applications. But for our needs it's nearly perfect. Winter is coming and we need to have some isolated walls and not just the thin linen ones of the magical tent," Harry pointed out.

"Next to that we will be able to stock up groceries at the local Tesco to replace the massive amounts that Ron ate while complaining about my lack of plans all the time. The next part of answering your questions is that I have suspected for a while that somebody slipped you some potions that made you behave strangely. I was pretty sure about a love potion keyed to Ron and one that made you doubt me. You had never displayed as much animosity against me as you did last year. Normally you would have at least given me the benefit of the doubt in regards to my theory about Malfoy being a Death Eater. You would have made me find proof, but you wouldn't have dismissed it out of hand. And honestly, I couldn't understand why you would pine after Ron, when you always argue and not in a teasing way like I've seen other couples do. And after I found out about the amount of potions in my own system, I was even more convinced that you had become a victim as well," Harry finished his explanations.

"Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry about the way I behaved. I mean, I was shocked in the beginning when you told us that prophecy, but I was determined to help you being ready. My plan was to repeat our working on spells that would help you like in fourth year, but then, suddenly, I felt this annoyance with you over insisting that Malfoy was a Death Eater and the Potions book. I also felt drawn to Ron, even if I would normally never even consider dating him. I mean, yes, he's fairly handsome, but he always hurts me when he goes into a fit. He knew what buttons to push and after how he behaved with Lavender, I normally wouldn't have wanted anything to do with him in that way," Hermione moaned.

She felt so stupid and used. Then she felt a hand take hers.

"I know, I was potioned as well to fall for Ginny. But I thought it strange and went to Madam Pomfrey, telling her that I felt strongly for a number of girls suddenly and that you had overheard girls talking about slipping me a love potion. She agreed to flush my system completely and I spent a hard night at the hospital wing. I have taken a potion to immunise me against any kind of potions that don't fall into the healing category since then. So I really understand," Harry assured her gently.

"But we wasted so much time. We should have been working on spells that would have helped us out on the hunt now. Oh, I didn't even think things through properly for the hunt. I mean, there were so many things I overlooked," she complained.

"You don't have to think of everything, Hermione," Harry comforted her, "We're going to start over now and this time we're doing things properly. Without the potions handicapping you, we'll soon be back on track. You spent more time listening to Ron and his complaints than thinking about a constructive solution. This will change now, I promise. We can talk about our strategy once you're back on your feet. And I insist that we take a week off from the hunt. We first need to recover from what happened."

"Okay, that sounds really good," Hermione agreed, knowing that she needed some time to come to terms with what had happened.

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><p>Harry had secured the bungalow in all ways that he knew. It was now perfectly safe for them to use. He would have gone back to Grimmauld Place and recast the fidelius charm, as it was better suited as a base of operations, but the constant watch of Death Eaters there prevented it, as the house would be visible for at least half an hour before the new charm could be activated after the old one was taken down, which he had found out he, as the owner of the building, could do. He would use the week to relax and then think where they could set up a more permanent base.<p>

Hermione had slept a bit more after waking up for the first time and now she was in much better condition. The bungalow thankfully had a working shower and Hermione had been in there for the last thirty five minutes. Probably she had missed taking a hot shower as much as he did. Finally he heard the door to the bathroom open and Hermione came out, wearing some fresh clothes.

"Feel better?" He asked concerned.

"Much better, thank you. Being on the run in a tent certainly takes its toll on you," she admitted before taking a seat next to him.

He just nodded.

"So, when are we going to go grocery shopping?" She asked.

"We can go now. I secured the bungalow with all the spells we normally use and added one ward that I found in the Black library. It disturbs any kind of tracking charm and lashes out against the one using it, no matter what kind of tracking charm it is. I worked on that spell for a while and now have it down," Harry informed her.

"That's great news. I was a bit concerned about that to be honest. But for some reason I never voiced it," she commented.

"Probably the potions that messed up your common sense and ability to think rationally," he stated.

"I just wonder who gave us those potions. Most potions wear off after a time," she said.

"The main suspect is Ron. He was the only one with the opportunity to keep giving them to us and he often took the task of getting water for us. But I think there are others involved as well. He isn't capable of brewing the potions that would be needed. I think Mrs Weasley and Snape were also involved. The potions to decrease my ability to learn, which were flushed out when I went through what you just experienced, don't fit with any plans of making us fall for Ron and Ginny."

"True. I can't believe that they would do something like that. What would they gain from potioning me?" Hermione asked.

"You're a powerful and smart witch. I have read up a bit about problems with magical powers in pureblood families over the years. Anybody can see that Ron didn't inherit the best traits that distinguish the Weasley family. And the only way to correct problems like that is by finding spouses for the families that aren't closely related to them. The genealogy book at Grimmauld Place was really useful in learning more about how the wizarding families are related to each other. Where Arthur and Molly are only very distantly related, which made their union one of the few pureblood marriages that didn't suffer from a lot of danger of the children losing power, other families are too closely related. For example Bellatrix and Rudolphus Lestrange are first cousins through Bellatrix's mother and Rudolphus' father. Nott's parents are second cousins, Crabbe and Goyle have lines of ancestors that were first or second cousins, which explains their lack of brains and magical power.

"Now, Molly and Arthur are among those that don't condemn muggle inventions and discoveries outright. Therefore it isn't too improbable that they found out about the dangers of marrying too closely to your own bloodline. You, as a muggleborn, were perfectly suited in Molly's mind to freshen up the Weasley blood. While for me, I'm about Ginny's sixth cousin through my Black grandmother. Far enough away to not have to deal with inbreeding issues, not to mention that Mum was muggleborn, and on top of that I'm loaded. And it's an open secret in the wizarding world that I would inherit two of the biggest fortunes upon my majority. So trying to make me fall for Ginny and having me marry her, would be killing two birds with one stone," Harry pointed out, "Even Molly would have seen that Ron wouldn't ever get off his behind if you didn't badger him into doing his work all the time and have done so since our first year.

"So, as he was incapable of making you fall for him on his own, she helped along with some potions. You heard her tell stories about brewing love potions when we were all staying at the Leaky Cauldron before third year."

"Yes, I can see that. But how could they do that to us? It's so wrong," Hermione ranted.

"There is no law forbidding using a love potion on another person. I checked after I found out about being under the potion myself. I guess Ginny was really frustrated how I didn't fall for her earlier. After that Quidditch match, when she kissed me for the first time, I was too taken by surprise that she would go that far to stop her. After that I tried telling her that I didn't feel like that for her, but she wouldn't listen, trapped in her own fantasy world. She would cling to me and after a while it was just easier to let her get away with the innocent things like leaning against my legs and the like. We only ever kissed twice all that time and both times she caught me off guard," he admitted.

Hermione had clearly not expected that confession.

"I wondered why you sometimes looked so exasperated with her, but I thought I was imagining things and then other things seemed more important all of a sudden," she said.

"Well, I'm very glad that you're back to being yourself. To actually get this job done, I need the real Hermione Granger, not the pale imitation that ran around Hogwarts last year," Harry teased.

"Prat," she teased back, "So, we should write a list what we need to buy. I really wish we had more money available to get things. My money will be used up soon, as we bought much more than I calculated last month. Really, Ron could have been more considerate of our supplies with his gorging. And then he had the gall to complain about my mushrooms," she grumbled.

"He's a stupid, greedy git," Harry said firmly, "Forget about him right now. We're on vacation and we're going to have a great time."

She smiled at him and nodded. Then they started writing down what kind of meals they could easily prepare and Hermione was shocked how much Harry admitted he could cook if he had a proper stove and the ingredients available.

"Why did we nearly starve all that time then?" Hermione couldn't help asking.

"I can only cook the muggle way, Hermione. I need proper ingredients and the appliance to cook. While I can make due with a camping fire to roast fish or vegetables, for the better meals that isn't enough," Harry answered, "For example, I have never really learned the cooking spells that Mrs Weasley uses to make sauces and the like. Give me the spices, some flour and water, or some cream and I can create a nice sauce, but I can't simply create it from my wand. Similarly I didn't ever get the way how to multiply food. Give me a piece of meat, some vegetables and potatoes and I can serve the best goulash you've ever tried."

"Okay, we'll put that statement to the test. Goulash sounds incredibly good to me. So you need meat, potatoes and vegetables, what else should go onto our shopping list?" Hermione asked.

Harry smiled and dictated her the things he wanted to buy to have some long overdue hot meals for them this week.

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><p>Hermione relaxed in her really comfortable bed. While outside one of the worse storms in fall was raging, she was completely safe and warm in the bungalow at the currently empty Centre Parcs. Harry's idea of taking a week off in the hunt for the horcruxes and getting over the problems that had come together had been massively needed. Not only had she had one of the best meals she could remember, her best friend had been the one to cook it for them both. She hadn't known that Harry could cook like that and some very small part of her wanted to rant about him not doing it earlier, but the larger part could acknowledge that to create such perfect meals, Harry needed to have something to work with.<p>

And when he told her just how many things he had used, a shockingly low amount compared to what they had needed before when Ron was still around, she had realised that they had really not gone reasonably about the hunt. All the negativity against Harry, which mainly came from Ron and which she had trouble going up against while wearing the locket, had taken its toll. They might have thought about covering their absence from Hogwarts properly, but they hadn't thought about how to do the hunt. It hadn't been made easier, because they didn't have a lot of time to plan anything.

They should really have met up with Harry while he was back at his aunt and uncle's house, but Mrs Weasley had put obstacles in the way of that next to keeping them apart at the Burrow. Still, they could have found ways around it. They were of age after all. Damn potions. She thought about the task before them. They had one horcrux, but didn't know how to destroy it, as they didn't have a proper tool. The sword of Gryffindor was capable of destroying a horcrux they had realised, but it was somewhere they didn't think they could get to. But it cleared up why Dumbledore had tried to leave the sword to Harry. Stupid Ministry keeping it away from him.

She also felt at ease for the first time in years. Her mind was her own again and even if she was determined to never again need a complete cleansing with a flushing potions, she was glad that Harry had tricked her into taking it.

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><p>Harry and Hermione sat in the viewing room of the cinema in Dunwich. They had apparated here for a day and had visited the once grand town. Hermione informed Harry about a bit of the town's history and how most of the impressive buildings had sunk into the sea over time. There still were a nice little restaurant that they found and a cinema, so they could just enjoy their day. There were no Death Eaters around, no snatchers and wizards had never really seen a sense in settling here. It was a perfect day for their little vacation. Just hanging out like muggles and seeing a few sights without causing suspicion.<p>

Once the movie was over, they apparated back to Brandon and the bungalow in the Centre Parcs. Harry made some hot chocolate and they enjoyed the evening just sitting next to each other on the couch, talking about anything that didn't have to do with their mission. With time passing, none of them consciously noticed how they had moved closer to each other. Only when Hermione fell asleep on Harry's shoulder, he realised what had happened. He didn't really care. He knew that he felt more for Hermione than being a best friend. She had been the one girl that always stood by his side, exception being sixth year where she had been under potions, even if the whole school turned against him. He just watched her sleep, how her nose twitched when a strand of her long, bushy hair fell onto it.

Though the hair was much tamer than in their first year at Hogwarts. He couldn't help himself but take the strand of hair into his hand, trying how it felt. He was surprised that it was so soft, despite being so curly. He played with it for a while before noticing that the fire in the fireplace had burned down and it started to be a bit chilly in the lounge of the bungalow. He gently lifted Hermione in his arms and carried her to the room that she had chosen. He had noticed that she had been relieved to have a room of her own again. Probably she had been really uncomfortable having to change in the same room with two boys.

And Harry knew how often he had needed to stop Ron from peeping on her. He took her shoes off and put her under the blanket with her day clothes on. He wouldn't break her trust by changing her into her night clothes. One night of sleeping in her normal jeans and sweat shirt wouldn't harm her any. Once she was tucked in under the blanket, he bent down and placed a small kiss on her cheek.

"Sleep well, Hermione," he whispered and left the room after switching off the light.

He didn't notice the small happy smile on Hermione's face.

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><p><strong>Until tomorrow.<strong>


	2. Research

**And chapter two is up as promised. Enjoy.**

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><p><strong>Research<strong>

Harry put away the dishes from breakfast, he had made pancakes at Hermione's request, and charmed them to wash themselves. It was one spell he had looked up while being at Grimmauld Place the summer before his fifth year. It was simply so useful. And if there was one chore he disliked, it was washing and drying the dishes. The purchase of the dishwasher was one thing his uncle did that Harry whole heartedly supported. When they were moving, he sat down on his chair at the table. It was one week after they had left their previous camping spot and it was time to return to their hunt.

"Okay, Harry, while the last week was heavenly and massively needed, we need to get back to our task," Hermione said.

"I know. Let's make a board at the wall and list everything we know about the horcruxes, any places we know that Riddle was ever connected to and what we know about his character," Harry stated to the nod of Hermione.

"Alright, we know he was a fifth year when the Chamber of Secrets was opened for the first time. The memory in the diary said that. It was opened again fifty years later, in 1992. That means, he was in fifth year in the school year 1942/43. You said that the matron of the orphanage said that he was born at the end of the year, meaning December. Doing the maths he was born December 1926," Hermione started.

Harry wrote that down and pinned it at the left side of the wall.

"We know he grew up at Wool's Orphanage and the matron was called Mrs Cole," Harry continued and wrote that under the timeline he had drawn. Professor Dumbledore was the one to deliver his letter. By the time Tom was eleven, he could already control his magic somewhat. He could make other children harm themselves, kill pets and he tended to steal things as trophies. Meaning he was a kleptomaniac."

"Professor Dumbledore didn't accompany him to Diagon Alley, but he noticed that Tom didn't like that he shared his name with another person. He didn't like being like other people. Even at that age. He was sorted into Slytherin and managed to rise to one of the houses' leaders, despite the fact that they had to think he was muggleborn. Knowing how Slytherins work a bit, he must have shown incredible skill from the start and he probably revealed his ability to talk to snakes to his classmates. They would know that Salazar Slytherin had been a parselmouth and make the connection that Tom was a descendent. Tom might have spun a story how he was placed at the orphanage, but with how nobody knew his parents, they couldn't be sure of his blood status. Probably his ability of adjusting to things helped him pretend that he was at least halfblood if not a pureblood," Hermione analysed.

"Then in 1942 he opened the Chamber of Secrets and it ended with Myrtle being killed in 1943 by the basilisk. He realised that the school would be closed if the attacks continued or the murder of the girl wasn't solved, therefore he used his knowledge of Hagrid raising Aragog in a cupboard to push the blame of the whole incident on him and got him expelled," Harry continued.

"Yes, they gave Tom a shiny reward, supposedly to keep him silent, but I bet he found it terribly amusing how easily he had fooled everybody. Professor Dumbledore kept an eye on him from there on, but it only slowed him down. When he was sixteen, he also went to Little Hangleton and killed his father and paternal grandparents, blaming the whole thing on his uncle Morfin, who was the one that gave him the information on the identity of his father, calling him 'the muggle that his worthless sister fawned over'. He stole the ring from Morfin and made it his goal to also get the locket of Slytherin back. He was made head boy in the year 1944/45 and graduated with top marks. He managed to get the information on the possibility of making seven horcruxes from Professor Slughorn, who, out of shame, never told anybody how far he feared that Tom had gone. He then went to work at Borgin and Burke's for a while, which baffled countless people. He was expected to make a name for himself in the wizarding world with his talents."

"Probably he was interested in the knowledge about dark artefacts, which includes horcruxes, that only a place like that would offer. He probably also suspected that a place like that, that bought precious items from desperate people, would be a place where his mother might have gone to. He was proven right when he found Slytherin's locket on the lists of items sold to Hephzibah Smith. He charmed the old witch and not only could confirm the location of his family's heirloom, but also found Hufflepuff's cup, one of Smith's own heirlooms, in her collection. He arranged that Smith died from poison and made the old house elf look like the culprit. He quit his job and was gone before anybody could notice the missing heirlooms of the founders of Hogwarts," Harry finished.

The board on the wall was already filled with a lot of information.

"Professor Dumbledore showed you how Tom used important places to him as hiding places for his horcruxes. He had hidden the ring in the shack where the Gaunts lived, the last known residence of the Slytherin line," Hermione listed and Harry started a column of important places to Tom Riddle, "He also used the cave where he had once tormented the orphans for the locket, which Regulus Black had found thanks to Kreacher taking him there. Regulus lost his life getting the locket away, thinking that with the destruction of the locket he would deal Tom a devastating blow. But he didn't know that there were more horcruxes. The diary was already a horcrux when the locket was made one. Either Myrtle's death or the death of his paternal relatives was used for that one, as it held his sixteen years old self," Hermione stated.

Harry put those parts down.

"We know that he was gone for a bit over a decade and returned at the beginning of the seventies as a totally different looking person. And he managed to make people fear the use of his chosen alias so much that they even flinched when they all thought he was dead, just hearing the name. Why was that by the way?" Harry asked.

"I think I heard something about Death Eaters tracking those that said the name in a way. They could find them if they were close enough to them," Hermione pondered, "Do you think that happened in Tottenham Court Road? You used the name then."

"It might be. If they were restricted in range when they didn't have the Ministry resources on their side, it might now be that the limitations are gone. I think they would only need to modify the underage magic radars. They encompass the whole country," Harry realised with dread, "Thank goodness that we didn't say the name accidentally."

"What I want to know is what Dumbledore was thinking telling you that you should always use the name. It was basically driving you into a trap," Hermione scoffed, "He must have known that it was possible to use a spell like that if it was a reason why people feared using Riddle's alias in the last war."

"I have no idea and we can't ask him anymore. I just wish he would have given clearer instructions and clues. Thanks to his games, I lost a lot of time to prepare and if I hadn't realised that I was potioned, I would have wasted all of sixth year as well. He could at least have given me a way to destroy horcruxes or mentioned it. But no, he let me deal with Slughorn to get the memory he needed to confirm the number of horcruxes without using that time to teach me how to destroy them or to find them. We could have done both at the same time. Many things could have been done simultaneously. But like always, he sat on his information until he deemed it right to give it up. Well, that gamble didn't pay off. We could use the information he had now. But the man wouldn't ever give a straight answer," Harry huffed.

Hermione stood up and hugged him. He returned the hug, holding onto her like a lifeline.

"We're going to get through this and then we'll go to Australia and correct the horrible mistake I made by taking away their memories. I don't know what I was thinking at that time. I mean, sending them out of the country is something I still don't regret, but if I had only explained things properly to them, they would have gone without too much trouble," Hermione admitted, "I had such a close relationship with my parents, but ever since before fifth year, I spent so little time with them."

"I'm sorry, Hermione. You're right, we're going to end Riddle and his minions and then we can live the life that we want. You can get your parents back and catch up on lost time. And I can finally be free of this stupid prophecy," Harry said.

They held onto each other for a while longer and then went back to organising the information that they had.

"Okay, we know of the location of three horcruxes," Hermione started again, "The cave, the shack and Malfoy Manor. And we know that the involvement of Malfoy wasn't the only time he used one of his followers to hide a horcrux. He used Kreacher, the elf of the Blacks, to test the defences of the locket. So it might be possible that he also used another follower with a horcrux."

"Good thinking, Hermione. If that was true, then the ones most probable to be chosen are Crouch junior and Bellatrix Lestrange. Those two were the most fanatically loyal Death Eaters back then," Harry nodded along and wrote the names down.

"Well, I don't think Crouch would be chosen to hide something back then, as his father was head of the DMLE. Riddle wouldn't risk him finding out about his secret, so I think we can scratch that possibility," Hermione pondered, "But Lestrange is certainly a possibility. Where would she put a horcrux, even if she didn't know what it actually was? I mean Riddle didn't trust anybody and only used his followers to increase security of his precious soul pieces."

"I don't know if the Lestranges have a manor like the Malfoys. But I never heard anybody talk as if they were that rich. Only that they were insane," Harry commented.

"No, they're not among the truly rich pureblood families. Their star had fallen around 1742 already. They are only an ancient house as well, not a noble one," Hermione looked through _Nature's Nobility – A Wizarding Genealogy_ to check that fact, "Yes, I was right. The house of Lestrange got the Ancient House label in 1698, but any attempt to gain noble status failed. They also lost half of their fortune in a scandal in 1742 when they tried to take over factual control over the access to potion ingredients in all of Great Britain. They owned thirty seven per cent of all supplying companies, but thought they could blackmail the others to either sell their businesses to them or outright kill the owners and force the heirs to sell, if the owner refused.

"The book says that an alliance of the Longbottoms, Potters and Blacks stopped the attempt. Those three houses are all considered noble ones and the Longbottoms were the second largest supplier of ingredients at that time. The Potters helped because they have been allied with the Longbottoms for centuries and the Black's heir was betrothed to the daughter of the head of House Longbottom. The Lestranges hadn't calculated for the involvement of the Blacks and lost the conflict spectacularly. They had to pay with half of their fortune once they capitulated. The three houses divided the spoils in three parts. House Black mainly wanted influence and got the Wizengamot seat of House Lestrange, which brought them up to three votes in the Wizengamot at the time. House Longbottom got the ingredient farms and greenhouses and House Potter gained two properties in Wales and Norfolk. One of them were very successful docks in Norfolk, which are in use to this day," Hermione read out loud.

"Wow, I never thought that a genealogy book would be such a good source of information on history. I mean, the bit of information you just read out beat Binns' classes by lengths," Harry exclaimed shocked.

Hermione giggled. None of the other Gryffindors had ever really shown an interest in history. She could admit though that with a better teacher that might have been different. Binns had had a strange fascination with wars against magical races.

"Of course, the goblins!" She suddenly exclaimed loudly.

"What have the goblins to do with anything?" Harry asked confused.

"Harry, the goblins run Gringotts. And the bank is considered the safest place to keep valuables, besides perhaps Hogwarts. But most people don't have the opportunity to use the latter, so they have vaults at Gringotts. And I bet Riddle would want to use the protection of one of the oldest family vaults. The Lestrange family came to Great Britain in 1249. It's why they are counted as an ancient house. All the old houses have vaults on the deeper levels of Gringotts."

"Brilliant, Hermione!" Harry cheered, "You're right, he would want to use such a vault. On top of the security aspect, he would have thought that having a vault there was a status symbol for a wizard. I mean, I remember how impressed I was when I saw Gringotts for the first time. It fits with his pride and arrogance to find a way to use one of his follower's vaults to have the goblins guard a horcrux. And Bellatrix would be a prime candidate."

He wrote Bellatrix's vault on the location list for horcruxes.

"That was great deducting. On par with figuring out what the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was and how it moved around," Harry praised.

Hermione blushed and smiled happily. She was really happy to have contributed such a major point to the hunt. And it was great to see connections like that again. She had to admit that she had somewhat lost focus in fifth and sixth year. Otherwise she would have seen so many things much clearer earlier on. Stupid potions. She would love to hex some people badly for messing up her mind.

"Thank you, Harry," she said.

Harry added the three horcruxes that they knew of, but didn't have a location for on the list. Nagini, the cup, and something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.

"This is good. We're making a lot more progress than before. Now, I still think that one location to hide something would be Hogwarts. It was the first place he saw as home and it is where all important wizards in Great Britain are taught. Not to mention that as heir of Slytherin he would think it only natural to place one part of him at the school his ancestor helped building. Not to mention that there is a strong obsession with the founders in itself, so the school is even more suspicious than any other place," Harry made a point that Ron and Hermione had previously denied.

This time Hermione seriously thought about it.

"But where would he hide it? I agree that he would have wanted to put it there, but the location inside the school would have to be unreachable for others. He would have had to be absolutely sure that Dumbledore didn't find it and figure out his horcrux plan," she wondered.

"There are two places I can think of that he might have used," Harry said.

"I guess one is the Chamber of Secrets," Hermione stated.

"Correct. The other one is the Room of Requirement."

"But that room is accessible to everybody," she quipped.

"But he would think that only he had found it, had unravelled the secrets of Hogwarts. Dumbledore didn't know what the room was and what it could do. He only mentioned it at the Yule Ball as one of the many secrets of the school that even he didn't unravel. And face it, with how many versions of the Room of Requirement there are, somebody looking for a specific room without knowing what to ask for would be lost. I learned that last year when I tried to find out what Malfoy was doing in there," Harry reminded her, "I only found out by coincidence that it was the Room of Hidden Things, because I needed to hide the Potions book. If that room was the one he used for example, you would be busy for weeks to find anything you're looking for, if you don't know what it is or where to look for it."

"The problem is getting into the school undetected. The passage through Honeydukes won't be easy to access with us being Undesirables and a bounty being on our heads. We would probably be caught and that isn't an option," Hermione mentioned.

"I know. And we don't know if they still allow Hogsmeade weekends where we could slip in undetected in the masses of students. We would only need to use some polyjuice. One hour would certainly be enough to get into the passage and with the Marauder's Map we could avoid any patrols in the school. Thanks to my invisibility cloak we would also prevent that the ghosts or portraits spot us, which would cause us trouble," Harry listed.

"So we basically need to make plans to break into the two most secure places in the wizarding world. Charming," Hermione groaned, "And that doesn't even include the snake."

"Yes, that one will be a problem on its own. But we can think about Nagini when we have dealt with the other two. We should also see if we can find out what kind of items are connected to Rowena Ravenclaw. Gryffindor only has the sword, which has basilisk venom on the blade, so it can't be a horcrux and I doubt he managed to get his hands onto the Sorting Hat," Harry stated.

"The Sorting Hat?" Hermione questioned.

_"It was Gryffindor that found the way,_  
><em>He whipped me off his head,<em>  
><em>The founders put some brains in me,<em>  
><em>So I could choose instead!"<em>

Harry cited part of the song the Sorting Hat had sung in their fourth year.

"Merlin, you're right Harry, the Hat is an artefact of Gryffindor and it would have been a tempting target with all the founders pouring some of their minds into it to choose for them for centuries to come. It could be considered the ultimate founder's artefact," Hermione gasped.

"Yes, but as I said, I doubt he could get to it before he had created all his horcruxes. And he wanted to make six to have seven parts of his soul. The most powerful magical number," Harry said.

Hermione could only nod. He was right in that part.

"So, we would need to find a time when we can check out the Room of Requirement and the Chamber of Secrets. That will take time and I doubt we will get enough of it without somebody noticing anything," she mentioned.

"The Christmas holidays will be perfect. The school will be deserted. You can bet that any non-Death Eater family would call their children home for at least the holidays. We still have one and a half months left to plan for entering Hogwarts undetected. Perhaps we can even use the mess that the departure of the students always causes. Nobody would look too closely if we sneaked in at that time," Harry suggested.

"It might just work and having two weeks to search both locations should be enough. Gringotts will be much harder," Hermione agreed.

"Yes, the goblins have great security measures, but it is possible to break in and get out. Quirrell did it with Riddle's help in 1991 after all, even if the Stone was already transferred to Hogwarts. So in general we can manage. But let's first think about other options. I don't fancy facing goblin justice," Harry shuddered.

"Yes, that would be nasty," Hermione agreed.

"Another thing I have thought about a lot is continuing our education as much as possible. I know that we wouldn't be able to do practical parts in classes like Herbology, but we will certainly be able to practice brewing the potions on the NEWT curriculum if we organise the ingredients, and spell practice for DADA, Charms and Transfiguration is also easy to do. I don't know what you'd need to do in Runes or Arithmancy, but I think together we could get to the level where we can sit the NEWTs in any country once we have the time and peace of mind. If we get through this alive, we don't want to stand there with no proper qualifications," Harry told her.

"Oh Harry, that's a wonderful idea!" Hermione exclaimed and enthusiastically hugged him, "I have thought about that too, but with how Ron and you never really wanted to study, I never brought it up."

"I didn't want to escalate the situation with Ron, so I didn't say anything either. He would have complained that we weren't in school and therefore we had no reason to study," Harry admitted.

"Yes, he would have reacted like that. Lazy bones that he is," Hermione nodded, "So, we should set a few hours each day aside to work on our studies. Hopefully we can catch up on what would have been taught until now at Hogwarts."

"I don't think it would be too much of a problem. I have worked on my spell casting a lot last year, using the Room of Requirement and you've always been through our whole books by the time the year started. So with your advantage in theory and my knack for the practical, we should get where we need to be for the NEWTs. And they're standardised, so if we can't get rid of Riddle soon enough, we could take some time off after the horcruxes are dealt with to sit the NEWTs in Ireland for example," Harry informed her.

"Yes, and getting to Ireland would be possible. They also speak English, which means that we wouldn't have to deal with the language barrier," she pondered.

Harry nodded. He was glad that they were in agreement on this as well.

"What do you think about physical training? I would imagine that we'd have an advantage if we were physically fit. The Death Eaters would never work out physically, and in a duel stamina would help you out massively. Especially as most of them have years of practice with dark spells, but none with endurance," Hermione asked.

"Sounds like a good idea to me. The question is where we could train. If we still had Grimmauld Place, we could set up a gym in one of the larger rooms, but we lack a proper training facility," Harry said.

"Well, I might have an idea," Hermione replied, "My uncle moved with his family to the US in June, because he had got a new, better paying job there. He has always been a fitness junkie. Therefore he set a complete gym up in his large basement. And nobody knows that he's related to me, as he's my Mum's brother. That means that no Death Eater would watch the house. We could put it under a fidelius charm and use it as a new base. The house has all the normal appliances and my parents would normally have tried selling the house, but as I sent them to Australia, the house is still in the state it was in when they left in June. I didn't really think about it before, but then again, my mind was messed up," Hermione told him.

"That sounds like a perfect idea. Would electricity, water and gas be running?" Harry asked.

"Yes, because we never got to call off the delivery. A company has also renovated the whole house to have it ready for sale. It was built in 1863 and really needed some renovations and modernisations. From isolation of the walls to new windows. The building company had estimated that they would be finished in September, so the house is ready to move into," Hermione declared happily.

"That's perfect. And with just the fidelius we wouldn't fry the electronics," Harry commented.

"No, you need a large concentration of magic to influence technology. I never had trouble with the devices at home, like the telly or the VCR. I even had a computer in my room and it never reacted badly to my magic. Only places like Diagon Alley and Hogwarts create the problem. And I read that Diagon Alley got wards all around it that isolated the alley from the outside and didn't let the magic reach the muggle settlements around it. It's one reason why you have to open the archway with your wand instead of simply passing through the Leaky Cauldron. It opens the wards for a moment so you can enter and closes them directly afterwards," Hermione explained.

Harry smiled at her eagerness to tell him some facts that she had read about. It was really useful how much she knew. He thought it was endearing, now that she had lost her bossiness from her younger years.

* * *

><p>Harry followed Hermione through the empty house. She was giving him a tour of the property and he had to say, he was massively impressed. This wasn't a house, it was more like a small mansion. There was even a swimming pool outside next to a large garden, which was currently very basic, as the redecoration of the garden had been planned to happen next year when it was warmer again. One of the best parts was that the mansion was about three kilometres outside of the next town, which was Littlehampton. It was a known tourist destination for its beaches and the mansion was only a ten minute walk away from the beach, which both teens thought would be great in summer.<p>

But with the distance, nobody would come around regularly and they could easily hide the house under the fidelius and some muggle repelling charms. They could go shopping in Littlehampton for anything they needed. Hermione told him that her uncle was a very successful computer scientist and had earned good money with all companies installing more and more computers to ease the work. Harry could imagine, as he had seen for himself how Dudley had demanded a new computer at least every two years to be up to date. And Uncle Vernon had complained about new programs making the work harder for him, as he had to learn how to use them first.

The gym in the basement was extensive and had all kinds of machines that allowed you to work out, including a treadmill, machines using weights to train different parts of your body, a weight rack and simple mats. There also was a corner with a basketball basket and in a cupboard were several kinds of balls and skipping ropes. You could even set up a badminton net if you wanted to.

"Your uncle really loved fitness, didn't he?" Harry couldn't keep from commenting.

"Yes, whenever we came for a visit, he would drag Dad down here and I was roped into playing basketball with my cousins. I wasn't very good though," she admitted, "But I could beat them all the time with the skipping ropes."

"Sounds like fun. We should certainly see if you're still good at that," Harry suggested.

"I'll show you just how good I am. Carrying lots of books around all day certainly trained my muscles," Hermione declared.

"One thing I wondered about was why the house was fully furnished. Wouldn't it make more sense to not do that for the buyers to decorate to their likings?" Harry asked.

"Well, they still have the option. The plan was to see if they wanted to keep the furniture and as storing it elsewhere would have cost money, my aunt and uncle decided to wait. The renovation crews had stored the furniture in a container outside to work and then put it back into the former places, as was agreed upon. The bank had orders to transfer the money once they got confirmation from the final inspection that everything was alright and the appliances properly reconnected again. The next step would have been for my parents to start placing advertisements for the house," Hermione explained.

"Okay, well, it's good for us that it's still here," Harry commented, "Which rooms should we use?"

"I'll show you the guest rooms. We always stayed there when we were visiting and they're really comfy," Hermione said and led him upstairs.

The house had four floors. The basement, which was mainly taken up by the gym next to a technics room, then the ground floor with a large lounge, the kitchen, a small bathroom, a laundry room and a storage room, and two upper floors with a number of rooms that were used for different purposes, one being a kind of cinema to watch movies on a large flat screen. Harry was eager to see some movies with Hermione that he had always wanted to see, but never got the chance.

They chose rooms next to each other and then set to work to get the fidelius charm up. It was actually fairly simple to do. It only took a good amount of magic, which meant that Harry would perform the charm and Hermione would be the secret keeper. Hermione prepared four stones with a set of runes, which would mark the outer limits of the fidelius charm. As they didn't know how long they would be on the run from the Ministry, they decided to put the whole grounds under the charm. The grounds were large, but that would only give them more space to walk about when they wanted to spend some time outside. And it was just inside the limits of the charm, according to Hermione's book. As there were no magical interferences to consider, they could cover the whole grounds with one charm.

When he was done, Harry was exhausted. Hermione helped him get back to his room, holding him up, his arm over her shoulders, and put him into bed. He was out like a light after that and didn't notice how Hermione spent some time playing with his black hair and stroking his cheeks, after she had taken off his glasses and put them on the bedside table.

* * *

><p>The next morning Harry woke up around ten, after a really good sleep. He went down to the kitchen, his room was on the second floor, and found Hermione reading a list of some kind.<p>

"Good morning, Hermione," Harry greeted and walked over to the fridge, looking for some milk and not finding it, "Guess we need to go shopping again. We need a good number of things and with a fixed base we can afford storing a lot more things again."

"Morning, Harry," Hermione greeted him back, "There's some hot water for tea in the kettle if you're interested and the teabags are in the top cupboard directly next to the fridge. I agree, we need some more supplies. There's a nice supermarket that has everything from groceries to kitchenware in the town. We can simply walk over or I can see if there are some bikes left in the garage. If we behave like muggles, we shouldn't arouse any suspicion."

"Wouldn't the locals know that we're not from around?" Harry asked.

"They would, but Littlehampton gets so many tourists that the locals don't look strangely at them anymore. While most of the tourists come during the warmer months to spend time at the beach, there are a good number that simply like vacationing at the sea, no matter which weather. So we shouldn't stand out too much," Hermione explained.

"Okay, I trust you. You know this place better than I," Harry nodded and poured hot water over his teabag, "What do we have left for breakfast?"

"There's some bread and cheese and some jam left," Hermione answered, "I finished off the last salami when I made my breakfast. I didn't wake you because you looked so peaceful and were really exhausted after putting up the fidelius charm."

"No problem," Harry commented and made himself one piece of bread with cheese and one with jam.

He sat down next to Hermione and started eating.

"I think we should buy enough to get through two weeks at least," Hermione said, "We can also stock up on non-perishable items in bulk, like noodles, canned food and the like. I already checked with the supplying companies that the bills for electricity and so on are paid until next June. My uncle didn't expect my parents to quickly find a buyer and therefore simply left enough money on an account to cover everything that was needed to keep the house in good condition. And you can't show possible interested people around if the electricity has been turned off or if they freeze to death. Not with an object like this one."

"How much did your uncle want for the house?" Harry asked.

"I think Mum once mentioned that it was around four to five hundred thousand pounds. The high price is one reason why the building company had to renovate everything. You don't find anybody today that is willing to buy a large object like this one, if it costs too much money for heating and the like," Hermione pointed out.

"So, in galleons that would be up to ten thousand galleons. I know that the conversion rate is one to fifty," Harry calculated, "That's really a lot of money."

"Yes, but it should be possible to sell the house once we don't need it anymore. And my uncle is rich, so he wouldn't be harmed if it took a while longer for him to get the money," Hermione said.

"Okay, I would really feel bad if we were the reason why he got problems in the US waiting for the money that wouldn't come any time soon," Harry said relieved.

"Don't worry about that. I once heard Mum tell Dad that my uncle earned about ten thousand pounds after deductions a month and his new job would pay even better. While my parents aren't poor, they didn't earn anywhere near that much with their dental practice," Hermione pointed out.

"What did you do with that by the way?" Harry asked.

"Well, I arranged that a letter, in which I faked my parents' signatures, was sent to an interested dentist, who had asked in the past if he couldn't join their practice as a junior partner. I wrote to him that because of a sabbatical he could take over the practice for up to two years. He agreed, so when I can get Mum and Dad back, that part will be taken care of and they can continue where they left if they want to. He was quite happy with the deal, as it would give him some time to make a name for himself and gain experience in leading his own practice," Hermione informed Harry, "Should the worst happen to me, he would get an automated letter three months after that and get an offer to fully take over the practice. The money would be put into an account that I opened for my parents in Australia. I left some subconscious information in them that if the money appeared on their account, they would think it was the normal price for the property they had an estate agent sell for them."

"Good thinking, but how would the letter be triggered? I don't know of any spell that can achieve it," Harry asked.

"Well, it is a triggered notice-me-not charm. You can connect the notice-me-not charm with something else, in this case my heartbeat. If my heart doesn't beat for longer than ten minutes on end, the notice-me-not charm would break and the dentist that leads the practice right now would notice it. A weak confundus charm would make him believe that the letter was delivered with that day's mail," Hermione answered.

Harry finished his meal and put the dirty plate into the dish-washer.

"Perfectly planned," he complimented her.

"Thank you," she replied smiling, "So, what do you want to do today, except for going shopping?"

"Well, we should think about how to get into Bellatrix's vault without getting killed or noticed by the goblins. The best thing would be finding out more about the pesky kind of information that children raised in the wizarding world grow up with, but that is surprising for those raised in the muggle world," Harry suggested.

"Yes, perhaps we should even set up profiles for each Death Eater that we know about. That would give us an advantage when we have to fight them," Hermione added her input.

"That makes sense," Harry nodded, "As we think that probably Bellatrix has a horcrux that she keeps safe, let's start with her."

"She was born a Black and is the oldest of three sisters. Her sisters are Andromeda, the middle sister, who was disowned for marrying Ted Tonks, a muggleborn wizard. The youngest is Narcissa, who is married to Lucius Malfoy. Bellatrix is married to Rudolphus Lestrange," Hermione immediately said.

"Bellatrix is also a mistress of the dark arts, supposedly taught by Riddle himself. She brags about being his most faithful servant and I would guess from the devotion she shows him, she is somewhat obsessed with him. Perhaps it was love once, but it was twisted. Her favourite curse is the cruciatus, which she used on Neville's parents until they turned insane," Harry added.

Hermione was the one writing everything down.

"She is really good at duelling and if you don't take her serious, you'll fall. She doesn't know mercy and relishes in causing her victims pain. There is no way that she should be left alive, as it has been shown how dangerous she still is, even after being in Azkaban for fourteen years. She would do anything Riddle asks of her without question and we know that she has all the prejudices against non-purebloods and those of mixed heritage that the extremists are known for," Harry continued.

"Yes, she tried killing Tonks, just because she had married Remus, who is a werewolf. I she ever got the chance, she would kill both of them painfully. She has a short temper and the only thing she seems to fear is the anger of her master," Hermione pointed out.

"Yes, that means we need to find a way to capture her and either see if she can be controlled by the imperius curse or if we can polyjuice one of us to look like her to get into her vault," Harry said.

Hermione didn't look happy about the possibility of using that curse, but reasonably it was the best choice.

"How would we be able to catch Bellatrix? She's too dangerous and will normally have some lackeys around to do her bidding. And we don't know if she can fight off the imperius curse. After all, she knows occlumency, which she taught Draco, as you overheard in sixth year, and that could mean that she can throw off the imperius as well," Hermione questioned.

"That could be possible. What other way would there be?" Harry asked.

"Well, we don't know where her vault is at Gringotts and we have no way to find it out normally. That means, the only way to get there is by having a goblin take you to the vault. And that would only happen if Bellatrix had some business to do at the vault. It would be noticed if you simply shared the cart with them, so probably you would have to follow in another way," Hermione tried putting together a way.

"The only way I could match the speed of the cart would be on a broom. I would have to be invisible in a way that no spell of any kind could undo. And we would need to know what to expect if we went down to a high security vault of any kind," Harry told her.

"The only ones that we know that work for Gringotts are Bill and Fleur," Hermione said.

"And they would want to know why we're doing this. Though I wonder if involving them wouldn't be a good idea," Harry mentioned.

"But didn't Dumbledore say that you shouldn't tell anybody besides Ron and me?" Hermione asked unsure.

"He did, but honestly, he kept to many damn secrets. We would be a lot farther if he had simply straight out told me that the sword of Gryffindor could destroy horcruxes. If you think about it, you could push all the sessions we had to view the memories onto one weekend. Start with the earliest ones on Saturday morning and you'd be done on Sunday evening with the most recent. Then use the remainder of the year to tell me what to train in while you go out looking for possible hiding places for the cursed things. We could have discussed possible hiding places and looked through history books for items of Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. We could have used your talent for research to find out anything we could about things like that and we would be a lot further now than we are.

"Probably he would also have known a way to get the horcrux out of Bellatrix's vault, and we would someday have reached that conclusion the same way we did now. We could have searched the Room of Requirement and the Chamber of Secrets while it was still safe. And sacrificing two days to get everything done in a timely manner at the beginning of the year would have been much more efficient than what he did. He didn't plan properly for the time where he wouldn't be around anymore to stall Tom from taking over totally," Harry complained.

"I know, he really didn't do things efficiently. Alone all the chances he gave to those that didn't deserve them," Hermione agreed, "Had he only curbed people like Malfoy when they bullied others all the time, they might have thought twice about joining Riddle. I mean, how often did they get away with causing trouble, when proving the opposite would have been easy? Why was Snape allowed to do what he wanted?"

"According to Dumbledore Snape massively regretted that he telling Riddle about the prophecy made my parents targets. I don't believe that one bit, but I couldn't really discuss it with Dumbledore, as the day that I found out about it, was the same day we went to the cave to find the locket," Harry explained, "Snape supposedly turned spy for the light over this."

"That is the most ridiculous excuse I have ever heard. I mean, if he had really changed, he should have been trying as hard as possible to not appear like somebody that treats all children from families that have fought against the Death Eaters horribly in public. I mean, if he was a real spy, it would have made the most sense to stay polite and try teaching properly. No other teacher with that behaviour would have been allowed to get away with that. In the muggle world he would have been fired within two weeks," Hermione ranted.

"Yes, it seems like one of Dumbledore's not thoroughly thought out plans again. Well, there's no use in whining about things we can't change right now. If we want to really question Bill and Fleur about Gringotts and perhaps even a way to destroy the horcruxes while not having the sword available, we need to contact them without tipping anybody off," Hermione stated.

Harry nodded and the two started thinking up ways to contact the couple.

* * *

><p><strong>That was the second chapter. Number Three will come tomorrow.<strong>


	3. Helping Hands

**Hey, thanks for the high numbers of reviews. I'm glad you like the story. Here's chapter three.**

* * *

><p><strong>Helping Hands<strong>

Fleur looked at the letter she had got that morning confusedly. The sender was supposedly her little sister Gabrielle, but the handwriting was definitely not Gabrielle's.

"Bill, could you please look at zis letter?" She called out to her husband.

"What's the matter, Fleur?" Bill asked, drying his long red hair after having taken a shower.

"I got zis letter from Gabrielle, but ze 'andwriting is wrong," Fleur explained.

Bill took the letter and checked it for anything hidden. It didn't come up for any spells, poisons, potions or anything else.

"The letter doesn't show any sign of dangerous tempering. Perhaps we should just open it. But still, we'll be careful and use that charm we use when we have to open boxes that we don't know what's in them and stay a bit away behind a shield charm," Bill decided.

Fleur nodded and put the letter onto the floor and stepped behind Bill. Bill cast the spell while Fleur set the shield. The letter just opened. Bill summoned the letter out of the envelope and Fleur charmed it to unfold itself. There was a childish drawing of a golden phoenix on top of the letter and then it seemed like normal writing.

They had the letter hover in front of them to read it.

_Dear Fleur, _

_I so miss you. I know that now that you're married, you'll live in England all the time, but that doesn't change things. Mum and Dad are great and I really like it at Beauxbatons. The classes are interesting and so far my classmates are nice. Though some of the older students compared me to you and they often talk about the Triwizard Tournament. How it was a shame that you couldn't win the Cup for our school._

_I like thinking back to the second task, where I got to visit you. It was somewhat scary in the lake, but when I was back at the surface with that nice black-haired boy, I felt much safer. Too bad that even I could see that he was more interested in making sure that the girl that the Durmstrang champion had pulled out of the lake was safe. I think they make a great couple. I really don't get why that girl would like the redhead that he had to pull out of the lake, not without a love potion being involved. She seemed too smart for him._

_I have asked Mum and Dad if I could come and visit you during a weekend. We cleared it with Madame Maxime that I would be allowed to spend a weekend with my family. She said that in dangerous times it was important to see our loved ones as often as we could. Well, I still have to make sure that my homework is done before I can leave, but, like you, I never leave my homework for the last moment._

_We also learned a really cool charm during our last Charms class. Our teacher showed us how to charm ink to change colours. You only have to say the password and it changes to another colour. That's so cool. Anabelle and I have decided to see if we can find a way to not only have it change colours, but also have one colour be invisible. Then nobody can read our secret messages and the teachers can't give us detention when they find a note. But that's still in the future. _

_How do you like my drawing of a phoenix? I don't know if it's realistic, as I haven't ever seen one in real life. I heard Professor Dumbledore had one, but I never got to see it. But I like the history of the birds. Can you get the last weekend of November off from work? I would meet you in Dover. With how much unrest there is in England, Mum and Dad prefer if I take a ship to set over. Or perhaps I'll take the train. _

_Please answer if you agree to the meeting._

_Love Gabrielle_

"That letter is obviously a fake. You said your sister can't write in English," Bill said.

"I know, but who would send the letter like zat? I mean, zere are a lot of zings zat Gabrielle would know, like the zings about ze second task, but ze rest?" Fleur shook her head.

"Wait a moment, I have an idea," Bill said, "If I remember right, the charm to change the colour of ink is only taught in fifth year, not in first year. And that wouldn't be that different in France. Perhaps there is a hidden message on the letter and we only have to guess the right password. The phoenix on top could be a veiled hint that it was Order business."

"Yes, zat might be true. Try a few," Fleur agreed.

"Phoenix," Bill tried, but nothing happened, "Golden Phoenix."

He tried a few more and then Fleur spoke up.

"'Arry and 'Ermione," she said and writing appeared at the backside of the letter.

"Great work Fleur," Bill complimented.

_Dear Bill and Fleur,_

_We need your help with the task that Professor Dumbledore set out for Harry. We chose this way of communication, as we were sure that any message in the text would go over the heads of any Death Eater that might intercept the owl. And a letter from Fleur's sister isn't unusual at all. After all, they wouldn't think anything strange that a girl would write to her sister, even if they should consider that Gabrielle is eleven and French and wouldn't know any English above the very basics._

_I assume Fleur guessed our password. If yes, you just won me a galleon from Harry, who bet on Bill. We will tell you the specifics when we meet you, as it is too important to keep certain things a secret to be careless in a letter. Please come alone. We know that many people are concerned about us, but this is for the best. Our task requires stealth and that isn't possible with the Order coming out in full force. And we would rather avoid Mrs Weasley and Ron right now. Ron massively messed up and abandoned us during our task over jealousy, inconvenient living conditions and his problem to keep his stomach under control. Therefore we don't want to see him right now._

_There is a motel close to the exit of the Chunnel that would serve as a good place to meet you. We can then relocate to an even better place. Constant Vigilance and all that. It will also serve to shake off any uninvited visitors. Be there at the same time that the second task started. Oh and to delete the message simply say the name of Harry's cute drawing._

_Hermione_

"So that is what happened with Ron. He was completely unwilling to share anything why he had left the two others," Bill commented.

"It would fit. 'E never could control 'imself," Fleur sniffed.

Bill knew that his wife wasn't comfortable around his youngest brother, because he turned into a drooling fool when she was around.

"Well, we can send him off to the Burrow then. I told him that we couldn't take him forever and Mum is going spare over not knowing what happened to him. We have hidden him for a few weeks now and it's enough. He can then be sent on to Aunt Muriel's house to not give his reappearance away. The Ministry thinks he has spattergroit after all," Bill commented.

"Yes, zat would be best. I don't feel well 'aving 'im 'ere ze whole time," Fleur agreed.

"I'm going to apparate over to the Burrow then to warn my parents. We can plan everything later. Phoenix," The words disappeared from the back of the letter and it only left the original letter.

Bill quickly put his cloak on, kissed Fleur and then went outside to apparated to his parents' home.

* * *

><p>Bill arrived just when a Ministry official was looking around the house, probably the third time including the wedding.<p>

"What are you doing here?" He rounded on Bill.

"I'm here to visit my parents," Bill answered easily, "As far as I know that isn't a crime."

"Don't use that tone with me!" The official demanded.

"You were the one starting it. I'm only here to invite my parents over to dinner with my wife, as we didn't have a lot of opportunities for that lately," Bill easily explained.

The official huffed and left quickly. He knew that he couldn't get them for anything right now, as he had looked through the house, hoping to be able to interrogate the youngest son about Harry Potter, but he was still sick with spattergroit, which was too contagious to be around it for too long. Which meant that he couldn't even force the boy to go to Hogwarts. When Bill was sure that nobody was around anymore, he set up a few privacy spells.

"Charming fellow," he said sarcastically.

"They simply don't give up. Thankfully there is nothing we could tell them, so they normally leave after making themselves feel more important after an hour," Arthur explained, "So why did you really come here, Bill?"

"I need you to arrange with Aunt Muriel to hide Ron," Bill said.

"Ron and the other two are at your house?" Molly asked hopefully.

"No, just Ron. There was clearly an argument between the three and Ron left them. He's been at Shell Cottage for a few weeks now and he didn't want that I told you, but Fleur and I can't keep him any longer. It's a serious strain on our marriage, as he can't control himself around Fleur. And as we have an option to hide him somewhere safe elsewhere, I don't feel bad for choosing my wife over catering to his whims," Bill stated, "And from what I could gleam, his old jealousy of Harry and his dislike for not having all kinds of comforts were the reason he left them. He didn't want to tell me about their mission, but his grumbling sounds like when he got himself in a fit, like when Ginny got a new dress when she was nine and he didn't get new clothes."

The two Weasley parents remembered that episode well. The dress had been a prize from a crossword in the Daily Prophet that Molly had won. They didn't spend any money on it. And Molly regularly sent in cards with the solutions to the riddles in hope to win a few things. She didn't succeed that often, but she got a new set of pots one time and some seeds for her vegetable garden from it.

"So he's completely unreasonable and feels sorry for himself?" Arthur summed it up and Bill nodded.

"Alright, bring him to Aunt Muriel's. I'll take over from there," Arthur stated.

None of the two noticed how Molly twitched slightly. She had kept it a secret from her family except the two youngest, who wanted to have Hermione and Harry for future spouses, that she had brewed love potions to make the two fall for Ron and Ginny. Ron had the job to keep them under the potions. They would stop working after two weeks if the dose wasn't renewed. And that would mess up all her plans to on the one hand get the Potter gold and on the other hand balance out Ron's faults with a girl that would hopefully give her acceptable grandchildren. She knew that Ron wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and that he had massive flaws, but she hadn't managed to get him over them. How could the boy be so stupid to give up his position?

* * *

><p>Hermione and Harry sat in a booth of the restaurant where they were to meet Bill and Fleur. They had taken polyjuice potion just ten minutes ago and it was now two minutes to eleven. They kept an eye on the door. This was going to have to be done properly. They wouldn't give up the location of their base to anybody. They had set up a small hunting lodge as a meeting point. The lodge was in a lonely part of Scotland, which would hopefully throw anybody that might try to pry any information from Bill and Fleur of their track.<p>

Finally they saw the two coming in through the door. Hermione waited for ten minutes and two more guests had come in after them. There were also three others on the outside that would probably try to detain them. For their safety of course. As if. Bill and Fleur seemed resigned. It was probable that Molly had pried the information about the meeting out of them. Well, they had considered that part. Hermione had left small notes under notice-me-not charms on each table. Now she dispelled the one on the table that Bill and Fleur had taken.

Both read the note with surprise and Fleur told Bill that she needed to use the bathroom. Hermione also stood up and went to the bathroom. The note had told Bill and Fleur that instructions on where to meet would be left at the women's bathroom for them.

When Fleur looked around, Hermione stepped behind her.

"The next meeting place is one block away from former headquarters. Moody's safety point. Don't speak to anybody and directly go there," she said and vanished from the bathroom.

When Fleur turned around, she only saw a woman leave the bathroom. She followed and only saw her and her companion leave the restaurant after paying their drinks. She went back to Bill and whispered in his ear, to which he nodded. They both left the restaurant and went to an empty alley. They disapparated directly and were shocked when upon landing they were grabbed and side-along apparated again.

"Quick, we need to take off any tracking charms on you. You should simply have kept anything about this secret," the woman next to them hissed.

"Ron found the letter and couldn't keep his mouth shut," Bill said, "And while he bought the fact that it was from Gabrielle, Mum and Dad didn't, especially after he said that it was written in English and they thought it could be a trap. That's why we had the tail."

"They're clean," she declared after a few charms that lifted any kind of tracking charm.

The man nodded and the group side-along apparated away again over two positions.

"That should be enough. Read this," he said and handed them a small piece of paper to read.

_The Phoenix's safe house is located in the hunting lodge in the wood near Kilchoan._

The hunting lodge reappeared in front of Bill and Fleur before the woman took away the note and burned it to ash.

"Let's get inside," she said.

The four entered the lodge and took seats at a rustic table.

"Good, thankfully we were prepared for something like that," the woman, whose appearance now shifted to that of Hermione Granger, said.

"Yes, especially in confirming their identities without having to ask stupid security questions," the now looking like Harry Potter again man agreed.

"What do you mean with that?" Bill asked.

"Well, Harry and I suspected that it could be that somebody was going to follow you. Either some Ministry idiots that keep watch over you, or some of the Order that think that we need to be under their 'protection'. Not that that has ever been very efficient in Harry's case. So we came up with a plan to get you here, where nobody can find and disturb us. Of course we had to make sure that you were who you appeared to be. So, as you can't use polyjuice to turn into Fleur, thanks to her veela grandmother, we only had to ensure that they didn't replace you with somebody, Bill. I created a charm that allows me to read the name of the person that has come in contact with it on a small pocket mirror. So we know that the ones tailing you were Arthur, Kingsley and outside were Molly, Emmeline and Ron," Hermione stated smugly.

"'ow did you set zat up?" Fleur asked impressed.

"We spent the day in the area yesterday to look up any kind of good hiding place and put the charms on lots of unsuspicious places all over the restaurant and the area a kilometre around it. So we always knew who was there. Had there been Death Eaters, they would have got a strong electric shock to their systems. Then we would have captured them, milked them for any kind of information under veritaserum and then arranged for them to vanish," Harry answered nonchalantly.

"How would they have vanished?" Bill asked.

"Pair of cement shoes and a bath in the sea," Harry answered immediately.

"You would 'ave killed them?" Fleur asked surprised.

"I have realised that we're in a war and that in a war people die, Fleur," Harry sighed, "And I'd rather have Death Eaters die than innocents and my friends and family. So whenever we'll get the chance, we'll take them out. Dumbledore was an idiot trying to redeem them all. Had only the Death Eaters not been allowed to buy their way out of punishment under the imperius curse excuse, we wouldn't be in this mess now. And as we don't have a proper prison for them, we don't have a choice in what to do with them. We can't dose them up to the ears in draught of living death and throw then into a basement after all. Over time that would have the same effect. And I prefer the faster way then."

"Okay, I can accept that. Now, what kind of help do you need?" Bill asked.

"First things first, we need you to sign an oath with a blood quill that you won't tell anybody about the information that we're going to give you except we give express permission to talk to that person or in case that Harry and I die. We need to ensure that if that happens to us, somebody else can take over the mission," Hermione stated firmly, "This is the oath I have prepared. Please read it and once you have signed, we'll tell you everything."

Bill and Fleur looked at each other and then read over the contract, their alarmed faces relaxing when they read the wording. It was just a very detailed secrecy agreement. The only thing that they couldn't do was telling anybody directly or indirectly, about the things that Harry and Hermione told them. That wasn't too bad. Both signed and the parchment flashed white, signalling the completion of the contract.

"Do I want to know where you got the blood quill?" Bill asked, rubbing the back of his hand.

"We paid a visit to our charming former Defence teacher's home. The Ministry might be missing an employee very soon. Such a pity," Harry smirked, "Too bad that a 'pureblood of good standing' had such shoddy wards around her house."

"The poor muggleborn registration commission, they'll have to find a replacement head," Hermione added grinning evilly.

"I'd rather pity the fishes near the coast of Hastings. I fear that they'd get indigestion from her toadiness polluting the water," Harry added, making Hermione break out into giggles.

"You're incorrigible, Harry," Hermione brought out.

Harry simply grinned proudly.

"So, you freed the Ministry of Umbridge?" Bill cleared up.

"Yes, it was so easy to get into the house. As we needed a blood quill when we realised that we could only give up information about our mission, if we ensured secrecy, we decided to get it at the one source that we knew of. Umbridge. We were honestly surprised that her wards consisted of just a muggle repelling ward, a ward to kill any kind of non-human, even part humans are included in that, with only house elves being excluded, and some basic house protection wards. We actually pretended to have a delivery of chocolate from Honeydukes for her and were let into the house without resistance. Harry stunned her and I tied her up. The questioning under veritaserum made me want to vomit. She's no loss for anybody, I'll leave it at that," Hermione frowned.

"Good, zat woman is evil," Fleur commented, "She even tried making it illegal to be married to a 'alfbreed'. So far she didn't manage and now never will."

"So, what is the big secret?" Bill asked.

"For this you need to know that over the last year at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore showed me memories in his pensieve that all centred around the history of a wizard called Tom Marvolo Riddle, later known as You-Know-Who, and yes, we know about the taboo," Harry started, "Professor Dumbledore showed me all he had found out about important events in Tom's life and those of his immediate family, the Gaunts. Tom was obsessed with the idea of immortality and tried to find a way to achieve it. In the end he decided to make six horcruxes."

"Horcruxes, why the hell would he do something that stupid?" Bill exclaimed baffled.

"What do you mean, stupid?" Hermione asked.

"Horcruxes are the biggest joke among curse breakers all over the world. We regularly come across some of them in our searches for treasures. They were invented by ancient Egyptian priests to give their pharaohs a means to be immortal. While they work partially, they don't give eternal life. Actually, after two attempts the pharaohs gave up on using them altogether. You need to know that if a person splits his soul, which is needed to make a horcrux, that person also splits his magic. More, there is a very good reason why nobody ever made more than one of them and then moved heaven and hell to have it protected.

"With just one part of a wizard's soul, you can track down and control the rest. That means, if you find one of those horcruxes, you ultimately have a weapon to destroy You-Know-Who," Bill informed the two, "The enemies of the pharaohs quickly found out what they had done to gain immortality and looked for ways to exploit the magic for themselves. And thanks to a split soul being very vulnerable, they only needed ten years after getting the information to manage it. You only need to create a special amulet to bind the soul to it. The amulet will then, if provided with enough magical power, call any other part of the soul to it. In this case that would mean that any horcruxes that still exist next to the one that you have to make the amulet, would be forced to let go of the soul piece.

"There is proven historic lore of an enemy of a pharaoh binding the pharaoh and all his magically bound servants to his will. The enemy drained the pharaoh of his magic and added it to his own. Though that was his undoing, as he couldn't handle having that much magic. His student, using the former ones research, found a better way. He connected the amulet to the wards of his home and let the energy of the pharaoh power his wards. The draining only took two days, then the pharaoh, who was diagnosed with a mysterious illness, and his magically bound servants, had lost all their magic and most died over the loss. A student of one of the priests found the reason and banned the creation of horcruxes from that moment on," Bill ended his tale.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other.

"You mean to tell me that if Dumbledore had simply asked you about your knowledge about horcruxes, we could have avoided all this mess?" Hermione shrieked, "I can't believe it! We could have been rid of Riddle before the war had truly started. The old fool had found the ring before our sixth year had even started! He could have used that to make the amulet with Bill's help and we would have been able to feed the magic of Riddle and all his Death Eaters to the wards of Hogwarts. That would have been poetic justice, but instead I have to go through a horrible year under love potions that Ron thought would be okay to feed me with, I get jealousy potions to turn me against Harry, I couldn't even think straight! And all because that old fool couldn't part with his knowledge early on and ask an expert on curses and breaking them for his opinion!"

Harry was truly impressed with the tirade.

"I could have had a normal year for once, without life threatening adventures, without having to worry about not having enough time to study, without fearing that Harry ends up in the hospital wing again over one stupidly dangerous stunt or another," Hermione continued.

"I know, Hermione, please calm down," Harry said.

"Calm down?" Hermione yelled, "I could right now sit in class and study for my NEWTs, without having to fear that I'm arrested and dragged in front of that ridiculous commission, just because I happen to be a muggleborn. I should be headgirl now, have the recognition that I worked for all of my time at Hogwarts. That title would be the one thing that could have opened my ways into the jobs that meet my grades in this bigoted world and because one old man thought he was always right and played god, all my life was ruined. I was too much under potions to realise that it was a stupid idea to obliviate my parents and send them to Australia, not even remembering me.

"And when I think about it, had Dumbledore simply done his fucking job, we wouldn't even have had to deal with the return of Riddle. Ginny had the diary horcrux all of her second year. Had he done a consequent investigation into how the chamber was opened, had he watched out which students didn't behave normally, which even the pompous arse Percy managed to do, I might add, then he could have known how Riddle cheated death back in 1992. Then again, he only needed to ask a curse breaker, and Bill was known to be a good one by that point in time, and Dumbledore could always count on the support of the Weasleys, and he could have ended it then and there. The whole Tournament fiasco could have been avoided. All the people that died would still be alive. You would have got the prefect badge instead of that bastard Ron that only sees me as his personal property. You wouldn't have been potioned probably and we wouldn't have had to run away from the bad excuse of a Ministry!" Hermione shouted herself into a frenzy.

Harry only saw one way to stop Hermione from losing it completely and stood up, caught her arms with his hands and closed the small distance between them to kiss her fully on the lips. He knew that only a shock to her system could bring her out of this and he had wanted to kiss her for a while. She first froze, then she relaxed and he could feel her returning the kiss with passion. Seemed as if he hadn't been the only one to want this. It made his stomach explode in happy butterflies. He let go of her arms and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close while not stopping to kiss her. He felt her arms sneaking around his neck and her hands playing in his hair.

After a while they needed to breathe and Harry, reluctantly, separated from Hermione. She stared into his eyes in wonder, before leaning in again and initiating the kiss herself this time. Harry was only too glad to play along. He had to say, kissing Hermione was something he had dreamed about many nights and she was much better at kissing than Ginny or Cho had ever been. It was too bad that they weren't alone and after a while Bill's coughing brought them back into reality. Hermione blushed massively at realising that they had been watched during their first and second kiss and tried to hide her face in Harry's chest. It didn't really work.

"Congratulations, you two, it's about time," Fleur was the first one to speak with a large smile on her face.

"Thank you, Fleur," Harry managed to say with a large grin. He couldn't be happier right now.

"Okay, I think you should explore your new relationship more when you're alone, but back to business. We need to find one of the horcruxes before we can make the amulet," Bill said, but he had a large grin on his face as well.

Hermione walked over to the couch and took her small beaded bag. Then she opened it and pulled out a golden locket with a large S on the front.

"This is one. Harry, Ron and I got it from Umbridge, who had blackmailed Mundungus into letting her take it. He had stolen it from Grimmauld Place, where it had been since Regulus stole it from Riddle," Hermione gave them the quick overview.

"Great. Good that you didn't destroy it already, that way it wouldn't be of any use for this. Destroying horcruxes is the much less elegant way to deal with the problem. It would leave the main body without harm and you'd still have to kill that part. And the best part is, this way you don't harm any of the items. You wouldn't think how large the fines are that the goblins demand if an amateur curse breaker does that. One reason why they only send the best ones to Egypt," Bill said.

"One question, I get from your statement that the goblins don't like the idea of horcruxes," Harry asked.

"They hate the things, because there aren't enough competent people or even those that would ask a professional to cleanse them of the taint. Priceless treasures have been lost because some idiots believed in the writing of authors that left books like 'The Darkest Arts'. That book is used as a negative example of how to not deal with certain things. Sure, the ways work, but they're nothing but a brute approach. Honestly, you can achieve the same results that those darkest arts create in other, less harmful ways and the described 'only ways' to counter them are just caused by lazy people that didn't want to do research beyond a crude but working solution," Bill informed them, "Basically a forerunner of the books that Lockhart wrote. Based on some truth, but completely useless in the long run."

"Well, you said that Riddle probably got the instructions on how to make a horcrux from that book," Harry said looking at Hermione, having his arm over her shoulder now, "and it would make sense that a book like that hadn't been completely taken out of the library before then."

"He really has to be stupid. Even if the book was in the restricted section of the library, it's common knowledge that Hogwarts' library is outdated for a good part, as the Board of Governors is too stingy to free the funds to regularly update certain sections. You can perhaps rely on books about spells, effects of potions and herbs, but I would never take anything on rituals, history and claims about being the absolute rule for full. People develop new things, new spells, new potions and new theories about use of magic all the time. It's how progress can even be achieved. Forgotten magic is brought back by researchers and improved on. To take a book from a school library as your starting point to power is just insane," Bill shook his head.

Hermione didn't like the statement, but she had to admit, with her mind now being free again, she saw some truth in it. And any good muggle library would make sure to keep an eye on new discoveries to always be up to date and take out books that had overcome theories in them.

"So, how long is it going to take to make the amulet we need?" Harry asked.

"A week," Fleur answered for Bill, "Most of zat time is soaking ze amulet in a potion in a crystal basin covered in runes of calling and binding."

"That's all that's needed?" Hermione asked astonished.

"Sure, you have to remember zat ze people in Ancient Egypt weren't really trained in all ze advanced magic. Ze most powerful wizards were ze priests in service of ze pharaoh. And zat was because zey were chosen from powerful magical families and trained from ze time zey were young children in special schools. And ze priests made very sure zat zey got all children zat showed a large talent for magic into the schools, and zerefore the service of ze pharaoh. It ensured zat zere wouldn't be any powerful opponent for ze pharaoh if zose children were found by an enemy," Fleur pointed out, "So, ze few ones with magic zat weren't in service of ze pharaoh, needed to come up with simple solutions. Brewing potions was easy and, with a bit of experimentation, you could find a way. And runes were used in the pyramids. Any good grave robber knew how to read and use runes."

"Then in a week we'll rid this country of Riddle and his followers, and then we should be able to enjoy our last year of school. We didn't miss too much yet, only two and a half months. And as the headboy and headgirl are probably Death Eaters, meaning Malfoy and Parkinson, they will be forced to leave the school as squibs aren't allowed to study there. Such a pity," Harry commented.

"You really know how to impress a girl, Mr Potter," Hermione commented happily.

"I know how to impress you, that's enough for me," Harry replied.

"Good answer," Hermione nodded approvingly and kissed him again, this time shorter though.

Bill and Fleur smiled at each other. Those two were truly good together.

* * *

><p>Hermione helped Fleur setting up everything that was needed to create the amulet. The amulet was a basic silver pendent, bought in a muggle shop. The motive was of the Loch Ness monster Nessie. There were dozens of them on sale in the villages all around the famous Loch. The only important part was that it was made of silver, Hermione was informed. And buying a silver pendent in the muggle world was much cheaper than in the wizarding world, as silver was a limited resource, with the goblins taking a large amount of the available supply for their coins. Next to that goblin forged silver covered a major part of the market. Meaning it was crazily expensive. Nothing you wanted to use for a horcrux binding amulet.<p>

The potion was brewed in two hours of concentrated work. The ingredients were easy to get, Fleur bought them in the apothecary without anybody batting an eye at that. They were parts of common household potions after all. Nothing the Ministry controlled at all. The harder part was engraving the crystal basin with the runes, which Bill did with Harry watching. Fleur admitted that Bill was much better with Runes than her, as her specialty were Charms and Potions.

Once the potion and the basin were ready, Fleur placed the pendent into the basin and then poured the still hot potion over it. The basin was filled up to the upper edge and then Bill tapped the runes around the basin clockwise, activating them. Now they only had to wait. They left the basin in the hunting lodge, knowing that only the four of them were able to go there, with it being hidden under a fidelius charm. They arranged to meet again in a week when the amulet would be finished.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter four coming up tomorrow.<strong>


	4. History of Molly Weasley

**History of Molly Weasley**

Harry looked at the amulet that was the tool to finally defeat Voldemort. The week had gone by slowly, especially the last day had been torture. Thankfully Hermione had had some really good ideas to distract him. Since they had kissed for the first time, she seemed insatiable. And she was a cuddle monster. Not that he minded. He loved curling up with her on the couch, reading a book over her shoulder. They still trained in the gym in the basement every day, as Hermione saw no reason to not do something that was generally good for them. And learning more magic would always be approved by the studious girl.

"Okay, what exactly do we need to do now?" Harry asked Bill and Fleur.

"Just hold the amulet over the horcrux holding the chain it's put onto. The pendant will pull the piece of the soul out of the locket without there being a chance to resist for the soul piece. Once it's trapped in the amulet, we can start the ritual of calling all soul pieces together. And they will come. First the one closest to the amulet, then the ones further away. You'll know when the ritual is done once the amulet glows blue. That means all parts of the soul that was called together are fully trapped in the amulet," Bill explained.

"You mean, it will also hold the part that is in Riddle's makeshift body?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, zat body should fall apart into ze parts zat were used to create it. In a normal, human body, ze effect would be similar to ze effect of a dementor's kiss. A soulless husk," Fleur confirmed.

"And we would need to connect the amulet with the wards of Hogwarts to have them drain the magic of the amulet to fully destroy Riddle?" Harry asked.

"Yes, and thanks to having connected his magic to the Death Eaters, they're going to be sucked dry as well. They'll either become squibs, or die from the strain. Not that it would be a great loss," Bill commented.

"Then let's do it!" Harry declared.

Bill stepped forward and did the job, as he had been the one who had performed this act a few times in the past already. The locket shook and tried to resists, but after one and a half minutes or so, they could see some black smoke slowly pouring from the locket. The whole extraction took perhaps fifteen minutes, then there was a massive wail and the smoke lost hold of the locket and was sucked into the amulet in a swirl of magic. The amulet flashed white once and then simply hung from the chain.

"Good, that was the hardest part. Getting the first piece. Harry, as the one with the most magic among us, it would be best if you spoke the incantation of the ritual. Not to mention that with a prophecy in play, we shouldn't take a risk in who does this part. I'll observe and act if something happens, which it shouldn't," Bill said.

Harry nodded and Fleur held out the incantation for the ritual.

"Omnes pars animae ab Tom Marvolo Riddle, voco. In septemtriones, in meridies, in occidentem, in oriens voco. Convenit!" Harry spoke the incantation.

It was a translation of an old Egyptian incantation and meant approximately: I call all parts of the soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle. To the north, to the south, to the west, to the east I call. Assemble!

Harry felt a rush of his magic flow into the amulet and then it basically exploded outwards and he felt a call inside of him. It had to be similar to how a bat's echolocation worked. Then he felt something stir in his scar. It fought, but the pull of the amulet was stronger. Harry only barely realised it, as the impressions from the call were running through him. Then suddenly some kind of pressure lifted from his head and he felt lighter and cleaner than ever before. It was as if he had lost a burden he didn't know about. The call continued and he felt an echo confirmed to the south. Then another one to the south-east. One to the north and one to the east. Three echoes were weaker, one stronger. Three horcruxes and one main soul piece.

Nagini was to the south, Godric's Hollow, he somehow knew, and the soul piece in her resisted the least, as there was another soul in the body and the soul piece flew north to assemble with the piece in the amulet. One piece had already gone in there, the one from his scar. He only noticed it, he didn't feel anything about this information right now. Then the piece came from Ravenclaw's lost diadem in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts. Nobody noticed, the goings on at school continued like always. From London, a vault at Gringotts, came the piece that had been held in Hufflepuff's cup. The one to give most resistance was the cup, it held the biggest piece of the three remaining horcruxes.

The last one was Riddle himself. He screamed in pain, but Harry only dispassionately watched how the piece of his soul, the one that had wandered around after having lost its original body, was pulled out, even if Riddle tried to fight it with all his powers in mind magic. He still lost. There was nobody around, as Riddle had ordered a private room at Malfoy Manor. Nobody would dare to disobey. The soul piece finally lost the hold onto the magical construct that was Riddle's body and flew towards the amulet. The body fell apart, leaving on a piece of bloody hand, some blood and white powder, the remains of the bone of Tom Riddle senior, who had unknowingly given part of him to give his son a new body.

Harry felt how each part of the soul was sucked into the amulet until the whole deed was done.

* * *

><p>Hermione, Bill and Fleur were shocked when the first piece of Riddle's soul that was pulled into the amulet came from Harry's famous curse scar. Hermione wanted to murder a certain old bastard. Too bad he was already dead. Then again, he would only have messed up things more, had he lived. She swore she would at least burn his portrait in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts. The bastard had known that Harry was a horcrux, even if she didn't know how it had happened, and had planned to let her Harry walk into his death. Now the words 'I open at the close' made a lot of sense. The snitch would open if Harry said anything about his death and another badly thought out crooked scheme of Dumbledore would unfold.<p>

Then another black cloud flew into the room through the window. It was sucked into the amulet like the two before it. Shortly after the next one arrived. She was surprised how easy this seemed to be and how at peace Harry looked performing this piece of magic. By her count they now had four pieces of the soul. Considering the unexpected horcrux in Harry's scar, they only needed two more. One appeared just when she thought that and followed it's siblings into the amulet. The last piece now would be the main part in Riddle himself. They waited expectantly, then a wailing noise came closer. When it was inside the hunting lodge, it cursed Harry to the depths of hell, demanded to be let go or he would kill them, that he was Lord Voldemort and that they had to bow to him.

It didn't change that piece's fate, it was sucked into the amulet and finally, when the last wisps of black smoke were in it, the amulet flashed again and took on a soft blue glow. They had really done it. They had collected all pieces of Riddle's soul and trapped them safely.

"We did it, we actually did it!" Hermione cheered, hugging Harry enthusiastically.

The one problem was that Harry was too exhausted. He had used up a good part of his magic and needed to rest. He basically fell into her arms and she needed the help of Bill to stabilise him.

"You better put him into bed. That's a normal effect if you use that spell. And the longer you have to hold it up, the more magic you use up. After a full night of sleep, he should be back to normal," Bill assured her when he put Harry on the couch.

"'E 'as earned zat rest," Fleur confirmed and smiled at how tenderly Hermione stroked Harry's cheek.

"Yes, he did," Hermione agreed, "Thank you for your help. We would have been lost without your input. We would have hunted the horcruxes down to destroy them, because that was what Dumbledore had told Harry he needed to do. And the bastard planned that my Harry had to die," she growled now, "He knew that there was a piece of Riddle's soul in his scar. That's why he didn't train him properly. Oh, I'm going to burn his portrait to ashes!"

"Want some 'elp?" Fleur asked, "I never liked 'im much."

"Yes, it would be very satisfying to burn him down together. He doesn't deserve a place of honour on that wall," Hermione decided.

"Now zat we 'ave Riddle trapped, I remembered a part of your rant before 'Arry kissed you silent. You said something about love potions? And Ron?" Fleur asked.

"Yes, I was under one. Harry had found out that he had been dosed with several potions at the beginning of our sixth year. He got the idea because he couldn't get why he suddenly, out of the blue, had feelings for Ginny that were beyond friendship. He didn't talk a lot to her before after all, only a few times here and there and never alone. And suddenly he wanted to strangle Dean, her boyfriend at the time, for snogging her? He got suspicious, as he had always got along well with Dean, and went to Madam Pomfrey. I had warned him that several girls had discussed plans to dose him with the love potions that Fred and George sold in their shop. He told her about it and she gave him a full flushing potion. He told me that he had to spend the whole night in the hospital wing, as there was more than one type of potion in his system.

"My behaviour towards him and Ron made him suspect that I too was given potions, but he didn't find an opportunity to give the potion to me, as Ron was always hanging around somewhere, or I stormed off, calling his concerns ridiculous or berated him over the potions book he had that had better instructions. It was totally out of character for me, but I didn't realise it, as I was too jealous that Ron was together with Lavender, when he had at first shown interest in me. When Ron left us in the tent, Harry finally had a chance to get my system free of the potions. I had a shitty night, but after that I could finally think again and felt like myself. And the only way that the love potions could have continued to work on the hunt, was that somebody fed them to me. As I was 'madly in love' with Ron, it can only have been him," Hermione pointed out.

Bill groaned.

"Don't tell me that Mum is up to her old tricks again," he complained, "I thought we had managed to cure her of them."

"What do you mean, Bill?" Hermione asked.

"Mum, as much as I love her, isn't completely there in the mind. The loss of my uncles Gideon and Fabian hit her harder than anybody originally realised. In the beginning she was just overprotective over us kids. She would never let us out of her eyes and the day I started Hogwarts turned into a minor catastrophe. There is a reason why Charlie and I took up positions in other countries, even if we had great opportunities here in England. In my case, I'm twenty eight years old now. Charlie is three years younger than I. I have passed my traineeship as a curse breaker with twenty. That is incredibly early, but the reason for it is that I accepted to be trained in another country on site.

"Normally, you have to absolve two years of basic training in England and then you're sent to gain experience on sites abroad. They teach you intricacies of Runes of different kinds, much more than the ones being covered at Hogwarts, then Arithmancy is a big part, languages of different continents and you learn a whole lot of charms. After four years you are fully qualified and allowed to work on your own. In my case, I had to study for the whole day for two months in Cairo and then I was sent to the sites where the tombs were searched. In the mornings the curse breakers would teach me the theory, in the afternoon I got to see how they broke through the wards protecting the tombs. In the beginning I was only allowed in the less dangerous ones and did assistance work, but after half a year, I was proficient enough that they let me do actual work on lesser curses and wards.

"The goblins didn't care how fast I was learning or how dangerous it was. I had signed a contract that I was Aware of the risks and that Gringotts wasn't responsible for anything that happened to me, due to my decision to take the accelarrated course. As long as the sites brought in enough treasure for them, all was well. They couldn't care less if a human wanted to take an unusual route to achieving his mastery in curse breaking. As I said, it was done at my own risk.

"Charlie was actually offered to play for the English National Quidditch Team. It was his dream coming true. But he decided to go to Romania and study dragons, which was his second great love. But, it isn't so much dragons, as all kinds of fascinating magical creatures that he wants to work with. Now, it would have been easy, thanks to Hagrid liking Charlie, to arrange for him to study part-time under a master in Magical Creatures. He could have played Quidditch for England and worked on both of the things he loved doing. Have you never wondered why both the oldest siblings have left our home as soon as we had graduated?" Bill asked.

"Now that you have given me more of the story, yes, that is strange. I would have thought that you would have taken the basic course, just to be safe and to be properly prepared for the tombs, and then went there. While you like adventure, I didn't have the impression that you take unnecessary risks," Hermione told Bill, "And nearly all Weasleys are Quidditch crazy. If Charlie had the chance to play for the national team and at the same time study for a mastery, he normally would have taken it."

"Correct, normally we would have done exactly that. But that's where Mum's obsessions with a certain mould comes into play. I was a bit of a player during my later years at school. Sure, I always did my school work properly, when Charlie started three years after me, I looked out for him and I did the same when Percy started his first year and I was headboy. My grades were always good and I played keeper for Gryffindor as well. But Mum worried about me not finding a proper girl that would become my wife.

"She got it into her head that there was only one proper way to live your life. To be good at school, I did fulfil that part, get acknowledged and be put into a position of authority, also managed that as prefect and later headboy, and then you get a good position at the Ministry, find yourself a nice and proper girl from a good family and marry her after a while. Then you have children, you work and your wife takes care of the house. She never liked any of my girlfriends. One was from the wrong family, the next dressed too provocatively, the third wore too much makeup, which made her look cheap and so on and so on. It really grated on my nerves and more than one of my relationships failed because of her obsessiveness.

"Then, when I was sixteen, she decided to take things into her own hands. She used one of the Hogsmeade weekends and watched all the girls in my year and the one above and below me to find me a proper bride. She finally decided that a girl from Hufflepuff in my year would be the perfect match. She came from an old family, had good grades, had nothing in common with me, I might add and was too boring for me in all. Not to mention that she had a boyfriend already. Charlie was just discovering that girls were nice to look at and not just mates or some kind of strange aliens that always giggled. To 'not repeat mistakes' she also had a look to see if there were any noteworthy girls around Charlie's age.

"She brewed love potions at home and sent me and the girl she had chosen dosed biscuits. I didn't think anything about it, after all, Mum often sent us homemade sweets. But suddenly I developed an obsession with that Hufflepuff girl and she had more trouble with her boyfriend for always looking at me. They broke up and I swept in and consoled her. That went on for one and a half a years and Mum was as happy as she could be. But we weren't allowed to do more than kissing and cuddling. Her letters were full of lectures about proper behaviour. When I was in seventh year, Charlie got the same treatment and was set up with a girl from Ravenclaw.

"It was actually thanks to Percy that it didn't end in a total catastrophe. He had read about symptoms of those being under controlling potions, including love potions, and reported the things he had noticed to Madam Pomfrey. She was the medical specialist after all, and he was determined to always contact the right person to get help. He had eaten up the rubbish about always listening to the ones in authority and taking problems to them to solve that Mum likes to spew. But in that case it was a good thing. Madam Pomfrey gave both Charlie, me and the two girls a flushing potion, after she had determined that we were under one.

"The outcome of that was horrible. The girls cried all the time about being used and my supposed girlfriend over breaking up with her true love. While they theoretically understood that we were as much victims as they were, they blamed us and our horrible mother for their pain and never spoke with us again. I can't really blame them. Dumbledore hushed everything up, but Dad was really angry with Mum. It was one of the few times where he took control and set very strict rules for her. He also made her see a mind healer and many of her undetected problems were discovered. Part of our debts come from the costs of the healers to get Mum back to a working mental state. She had to spend three months at St. Mungo's.

"After that she seemed a bit better, but she still tried to push Charlie and me into positions that we didn't want. Especially me, telling me that I should think of my future and not hunt ridiculous dreams like curse breaking. That was why I took the option to learn away from England. Had I taken the way to study in England, I would have been expected to stay at the Burrow until I married and had my own place. I didn't want that, I wanted away from her control, so I went to Egypt for the intense training course and I stayed there until Riddle got his body back and I knew that I was needed here to fight. Not to mention that I had met Fleur and we kept our relationship a secret from Mum until we could present her with a fait accompli. Mum only found out that I was seeing Fleur after I had proposed. While she could show her displeasure about it, she couldn't do anything.

"Charlie felt similarly. He wanted to take the position with the Quidditch team and she was always ranting about it not being a proper profession, that he should follow Dad into the Ministry, that he shouldn't follow my irresponsible example and so on. Finally he snapped, told her if she didn't understand his dreams, she wouldn't be part of his life anymore and left that day. I found out later that he had had an offer from the dragon preserve to study magical creatures with a focus on dragons, but that the only way to do it was taking a full-time position at the preserve. He did it just to escape Mum. While she was supposedly cured of her idea of putting perfect couples together with potions, it was clear that she didn't think that any of her children deserved the right to decide what to do with their lives. Only she knew what was best.

"It would have taken more sessions with the mind healer to get her over that part too, but Dad already had trouble paying for the first ones, so it couldn't be done. Thanks to Dumbledore, all Weasley siblings got to study at Hogwarts for reduced fees. Not a full scholarship like it is done for poor magical orphans that get a small stipend next to being allowed to attend for free, but it helped out a lot with our finances," Bill ended his explanations.

"So, basically your Mum is insane, but because it's too expensive she couldn't finish treatment and only managed to appear alright. She deceived you all into believing that while her way of thinking hadn't changed much, she was at least cured of forcing the issue?" Hermione summarized it.

"That's the basic problem, yes. I guess, when she realised that Ron, whom she always babied, didn't show any talent for any class at school, she was worried and hoped that he would come around. What he would have needed was to face reality. But Ron never had to do that at home. And Ginny was worse. Mum basically brainwashed her with stories about the Boy-Who-Lived. I think Ginny never really managed to realise that there was a true boy behind the story character. And with how Mum told stories how love potions were harmless and perfectly alright to use to gain the interest of your love interest, they would think that it was alright to get what they wanted that way, the easy way.

"If I think about it, perhaps she also added some potions to let you feel a basic loyalty to our family. After all, in her eyes, it would be a good deed to make Harry, a poor orphan, part of our family and the best way to achieve it was having him fall in love with Ginny and marry her. Ginny would have a rich and famous husband, one that she had been told she would have since she was a little girl, and the fortune of the Potters would help pay off the remainder of the debts. Of course she had to make sure that Dad didn't find out anything, but that was easy, as he's out most of the day for work. For you, I guess she decided that, as you were the one that made Ron do his homework, you were destined to be together. And giving a muggleborn witch a pureblood family that could support her in our world was also something of a good deed in her eyes. She thinks twisted like that," Bill explained.

"You do know that we won't ever trust her with anything again and that we won't forgive Ron and Ginny for their parts in this fiasco?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. I fully understand. Had I known about this, I would have acted earlier and given you the neutralising potions myself. But I didn't know you enough to know that you were under the potions. And I only saw you occasionally. For me it looked as if it simply developed naturally. I didn't even know about Harry and Ginny having any kind of relationship, except that they knew each other through Ron. Harry never made the impression that Ginny was more than Ron's little sister," Bill stated.

"It was a one-sided fantasy on Ginny's side. She caught him off guard, he tried to tell her that there was nothing romantic between them, even after she kissed him in the common room after the last Quidditch match of the season, but she didn't let go, telling everybody that they were dating. Harry is too nice to really put somebody down harshly, so he let her follow him, but prevented any kind of actions that couples did, except one other kiss where she surprised him again. He used the chance when she was not in denial to break up at Dumbledore's funeral. He told me that she still thinks that he will come back to her once the war is over," Hermione informed them.

"Perhaps you should send 'er to a mind 'ealer as well, Bill," Fleur suggested, "Zat isn't normal behaviour."

"I'll see what I can do, but I agree, Fleur," Bill nodded.

Harry slept through all of this and Hermione simply put a blanket over him to let him recover from the spell he had used.

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><p>When Harry woke up again, he was disorientated at first, but then, after a little while, he recognised the hunting lodge. He sat up and looked around. It was still fairly dark, he would guess either shortly after sunset or a bit before dawn. He spotted a light blue glow a bit to the side and when he looked there, he noticed it coming from the amulet. The amulet that held all pieces of Riddle's soul. He couldn't help but feel satisfied. The task was nearly done and now he only had to put the amulet in a place where the wards of Hogwarts could absorb the magic to finally end the terror of Tom Riddle. He wanted to do it as soon as possible, as every day that the Death Eaters were allowed to run wild, was a day where people died.<p>

But still, they needed to have a good plan. It wouldn't do to be killed because they were careless. That could thwart their mission on the last short part.

He also needed a bit of time to sort through the information that he had got when he had called the pieces of Riddle's soul together. Especially the one that a part of it had been hidden in his scar. He felt completely betrayed by Dumbledore. Especially as he knew that all the hurt and pain in his life, that Dumbledore probably justified with him not being able to survive for Riddle to die anyway, had been totally needless. Had the old bastard just asked a curse breaker that he swore to secrecy for an expert opinion, he could have found this way years ago.

Hermione was right in her rant. So many things could have gone differently, if only Dumbledore hadn't kept information secret until it was too late. Sirius could have been alive, had he known that Riddle would try to lure him into the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry. A proper warning would have been all it needed for Harry to be more suspicious. But he was the one that got the information last. And then the so-called occlumency training with Snape. All the ridicule and headaches trying to defend his mind. No information about the how was given, no preparation. And if he had asked for help, they wouldn't have even been necessary.

Dumbledore had said that he had got confirmation about horcruxes being Riddle's secret to cheating death in his second year. Had he then asked a curse breaker, and the topic seemed to be common knowledge among them, he would have been able to search for one of them, or even have simply used Harry's scar, which he suspected was one at the time, to make an amulet like the one that was resting on the table. That would have ended Riddle early on and saved so many lives. Cedric, Sirius, Mad-Eye, George wouldn't have been injured and so many, many more.

All because an old man wouldn't give up his secrets and didn't believe that anybody could know more than him. In a way he was like Riddle. Always convinced that he knew best, even if Dumbledore hadn't caused a reign of terror. But he certainly was arrogant in his own way and horded knowledge. Harry stood up and walked over to the window. There was going to be snow soon, going by the dark clouds and the temperatures around this area. Scotland was cooler than the south of England where the mansion was located.

And Harry had to admit, he liked the area. He and Hermione had taken some long walks, simply enjoying an evening together after having worked during the day on finding the horcruxes or studying magic. The working out together in the morning was also a very nice aspect of their days. It was something he didn't want to give up. Or the day trips they had made to places where they did a bit of sight-seeing, or something simple like seeing a movie at the cinema. It was a simple life that wasn't boring and he liked that. And without Ron grumbling about too much studying all the time, it wasn't a chore like it had appeared to him in the past. The potions put aside.

He, perhaps for the first time in his life, allowed himself to think what he wanted to do with his life in the future. He was close to being rid of the nightmare that had held his life in its grips forever. He now had a future. Secretly he had always doubted that he would come out of the war alive. Despite the training with the DA that he had done, his personal training in the Room of Requirement in sixth year and his normal studies. He didn't really believe that he could defeat Voldemort and come out alive. But now, Tom Riddle's soul was trapped and his makeshift body had fallen apart. There was still a large number of Death Eaters and corrupt bureaucrats to consider, but the Death Eaters would fall as soon as the amulet was connected to Hogwarts' wards to be sucked dry of any magic. The connection through the dark mark would doom the Death Eaters.

It wasn't a nice prospect, but they had at least a chance to survive, even if they would lose their magic. That was more than their victims ever had. And it felt less horrible than having to kill them to prevent them from killing others again and again. If they only used their magic to harm others and make their lives miserable, they didn't really deserve it. In his eyes magic was something wonderful and it shouldn't be tainted like that. He was so deep in thought that he didn't hear the soft footsteps behind him until he felt slender arms wrapping around his waist and a soft body pressing against his back.

"Morning Harry," Hermione mumbled softly, "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, I did. Thank you. Do you know what time it is?" Harry asked.

"Around eight in the morning," She answered, "What were you thinking about? You seemed deep in thought."

"Mainly the changes that have happened recently. The chances that we have for the future. How we now only need to get the amulet connected to the Hogwarts wards and let them do the job of getting rid of Riddle and his followers without us or others having to risk their lives. How I finally seem to have a future," He whispered in the end.

Hermione hugged him harder, not wanting to think about the chance of losing him.

"I have always felt as if I didn't really have long to live. While I have told Professor McGonagall that I wanted to become an auror, it was mainly because that seemed to be along the lines of what I needed to do. Riddle was always after me and I would need to know how to fight to be able to stop him. In the end I only needed to ask the right people and call the soul pieces together. I know so little about the magical world outside of Hogwarts. Talking to Bill and Fleur made it more obvious. The only places that I've ever truly seen are Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, the Burrow and the Quidditch World Cup.

"I also learned more about the muggle sights in the weeks that we stayed at your uncle's mansion with you, during our trips, than all the time I lived with the Dursleys. It made me think that soon I could experience all the things that others have experienced. I can simply go out and be a normal teenager. I can meet friends without having to worry about safety, being basically imprisoned in one place or the other, because there are people out there that want to see me dead. I can go to an amusement park, can go on vacation, learn driving a car and so many other things," Harry listed, "I don't have to be afraid that any girl I like would be made a target of a maniac that would kidnap and kill her just to get to me," He looked at her saying the last part.

"This will soon be over. We have all the pieces of Riddle's soul. There aren't any horcruxes anymore and as soon as the draining of the amulet has started, we're going to get rid of the threat of the Death Eaters as well. We'll be free," Hermione said, "What do you plan to do after Hogwarts, once we have got our NEWTs?"

"I don't really know. Travelling for a while would be nice. Learning how magic is used in other countries. Bringing back things that I think could modernise our society. The pureblood elitism has blocked too many attempts for progress. I'm sure that there have to be ways to modify concepts from the muggle world to work in the magical world. We could take the starting points of development of everyday items that muggles use, like mobiles, movies, tellies and so many others to bring things forward. I mean, when movies started, they were just some pictures put after another. We learned how to make a miniature cinema that we could play with in primary school in our arts class. The first movies were short sliding shows of pictures put behind another in front of a source of light. Take that idea and use magic to achieve it. It would be an absolute hit," Harry said excitedly.

"It could be possible. It sounds like a great idea. And the twins could help marketing items that are modified enough to work on magic, like for example the principle of the two-way mirrors instead of a mobile that only allows speech," Hermione agreed and spun the idea further, "I mean, they already have expanded their product line to include interesting aspects beyond being pranks. They would be open to that."

Harry nodded happily and Hermione shifted her position to hug him from the front and he returned the gesture contently.

* * *

><p><strong>Until tomorrow.<strong>


	5. Ending a Dark Lord

**And the next one is up. Thanks for all your reviews. I had to chuckle when I read the ones from chapter three that they ignored the potions comment, as I had already planned the solution to that. Hope you like this chapter as well. Enjoy.**

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><p><strong>Ending a Dark Lord<strong>

The next time Bill and Fleur came over to the hunting lodge they had a guest with them. The four had discussed how to best get access to the Hogwarts wards to get rid of Riddle and the one that would know best how to do it would be Minerva McGonagall. So it was decided that she would be invited by Bill for tea on a Hogsmeade weekend, something which surprised Harry and Hermione still took place, even if Death Eaters ran the school. Fleur would set up an illusion charm to fool anybody watching shell cottage into believing that they were still there, even if they had apparated to the wood around the lodge, of course over three stations between that, where they would meet Harry and Hermione and McGonagall would be shown the note that allowed her access to the secured lodge.

Professor McGonagall was very relieved to see two of her favourite students safe and sound, despite the fact that they had high bounties on their heads. A travesty in her eyes, but that was the corrupt government under You-Know-Who's rule for you.

"Mr Potter, Miss Granger, I'm really pleased to see you well," she greeted them happily.

"Likewise, Professor McGonagall. Let's go inside to talk," Hermione replied and handed her the note with the secret.

"You've come a long way being able to set up a fidelius charm," McGonagall commented.

"True, Harry has become really good at casting it," Hermione commented.

McGonagall seemed a bit surprised, but didn't voice it.

"So, how have you been?" She asked once they were all inside and Harry had served tea and a cake he had baked himself. It was a marble cake with chocolate frosting.

"It wasn't easy a lot of times, but we're close to finishing the mission we had now, thanks to the help of Bill and Fleur," Harry said.

"Really, would you mind telling me what you were doing? You weren't very open about giving me that information at the end of the last school year," McGonagall asked.

Harry nodded and then relayed the story what Riddle had done, how Dumbledore had told him, then the hunt for the horcruxes and in the end the involvement of Bill and Fleur and how that had shortened the mission massively, because they knew exactly how to easily get rid of the problem, thanks to their work as curse breakers.

"You mean to tell me that we wouldn't have had to go through all these horrible years, not to mention have had to mourn those victims, if Albus had just asked a professional curse-breaker, one of which was even part of the Order?" McGonagall asked angrily.

"Yes, that nicely sums it up," Hermione nodded, "We could have prevented all the deaths that occurred since the resurrection of Riddle if only he had asked for help from those whose job it is to break curses and deal with dark magic all the time. He said he had proof for his theories since Harry handed him the diary. Give him a year to do research, and we could have been done with Tom Riddle and his idiot followers before they even became a problem again."

"That's a lot to take in. But I'm glad that you managed to trap all those soul pieces. So now you need a way to get the magic drained, which will effectively kill Riddle and take away the magic of every branded follower," she stated.

"Yes. And we don't have to feel guilty for that. Each and every Death Eater committed horrible crimes to get his dark mark. We know for sure that use of the cruciatus curse is involved and the killing of a victim. Not always the killing curse, but they have to kill before they take the mark. The consequences of losing their magic for that aren't as severe as killing them all would be. And it costs no lives on our side, which any other option would have," Harry explained, "And it also won't harm the ones that are imperiused to help them. I can live with this solution the best way."

McGonagall nodded. It was true. Actions had consequences and it was high time that certain people learned to live with those for their actions.

"Well, we would need to have access to the ward stone of the castle to start the transfer of the magic in Riddle's soul and the Death Eaters that will be drawn in as well. The ward stone is located in the Great Hall, as that is where the highest number of magicals will be assembled at the same time regularly, meaning the meals. It is the centrepiece of the Hogwarts crest on the floor in front of the head table. The crests on the walls are connected magic collectors that direct the magic into the ward stone. There is a reason why Hogwarts is considered the safest place in Britain. All school crests inside the castle have the ability to absorb excess magic.

"Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin created the concept together. They knew that no single person could ever power wards strong enough to give the students the protection from outside threats that they would need. Therefore, they decided to spread the burden out. While learning magic, children always use more magic than necessary. That excess magic wouldn't harm anybody if it was used in the wards. The children would rebuild that magic overnight anyway. Helga Hufflepuff added to her friends' scheme and brought a special kind of trees in, which are planted all over the Forbidden Forest. They take up excess magic from the creatures and plants in the forest and direct it into the wards as well.

"To drain the amulet, it would need to be put onto the main crest in the Great Hall," McGonagall explained.

"Could you do that?" Harry asked, "It would be easiest for you to do it, as sneaking in would be nearly impossible for any of us."

"I certainly can do that. I would only have to do it in the early hours of the morning, as then the Carrows and Snape are still asleep. We should soon be rid of the problem," McGonagall confirmed.

"Good, the sooner it is done, the sooner we can work on cleaning up. There is a lot of work to do and Hermione is eager to return to get back into swing to study for our NEWTs," Harry said smiling.

"That sounds like a great idea. Oh, and you can prepare to become my new head duo. I was against making Mr Weasley a prefect, but Albus overruled me, even if the nomination of prefects should be my decision, not his. So I think it is overdue that you get a bit more appreciation for your actions and services for the school, Mr Potter," McGonagall smiled.

Harry smiled back and enjoyed the kiss from his girlfriend.

* * *

><p>It was three in the morning and, thanks to Harry letting her borrow the Marauder's Map, Minerva McGonagall was sure that nobody was around to stop her ending the war once and for all. While she had scolded Harry for the map, his impish grin had been good to see. Not to mention the similarities of having James Potter's son falling for another very bright muggleborn witch. She had thought early in their school career that sooner or later they would be together, as Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were simply too different to ever work out.<p>

Harry Potter had a much easier personality for the girl to accept and they had proven to be a great team over the years. Not to mention that she couldn't help but notice the kicked puppy look that Harry had had when Hermione had been petrified and he looked at her normal seat in class or in the Great Hall. He probably hadn't realised it then, but he was falling for the girl early on. Hearing that Molly Weasley had again tried to interfere with other people's lives made her furious. She had thought that after the scandal that had been found out in 1987, when the only reason why no charges against the Weasleys had been brought in front of the Wizengamot had been Albus' interference and the results of the medical exams.

The families of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff girls had refrained from suing the Weasleys on the condition that Molly was seen to by a mind healer and that she wouldn't try anything like that again. Sadly it seemed that now, ten years later, she had decided that it was okay to try again, to help her two youngest to get the spouses that they wanted. Well, she would implement a number of changes once she got her rightful position as headmistress.

She reached the Great Hall and undid the weak alarm that was set on the doors. Any witch of her experience could do that. She checked the map again and the Carrows, Snape and Filch were in their rooms. To make sure she waited for ten minutes before she acted. She took out the amulet and placed it onto the centre of the Hogwarts crest.

"Poetic justice that Hogwarts herself will be the medium to end the reign of terror of that madman. Ward charging, activate," she said and as deputy headmistress the wards immediately reacted to her command.

The four parts of the crest flashed in the house's colour once and then the centre part, the H, flashed and the amulet was stuck to the crest. She could see how the crest started to glow golden from the centre going outwards. The ward stone would pull any magic that was connected with the amulet into itself. The amulet was truly a work of art, even if the process to create it was surprisingly simple. She had enjoyed hearing the story and thought that they really needed a new History of Magic Professor. The children didn't learn anything in Cuthbert's classes.

The glow had now reached the crests of the houses and to her surprise the first one to glow was the Hufflepuff crest and the others stayed in their previous state. The crest needed one hour to be fully glowing, when the Ravenclaw crest began the same process. It continued until all four crests were glowing golden. Occasionally she checked the map, but nobody was approaching the Great Hall.

Minerva McGonagall felt how powerful the wards were becoming. How old and forgotten wards suddenly activated again. Magic long forgotten spread through the whole school and in all common rooms dark objects were detected and transported away by one of the house elves that were commanded by the castle itself. Many forgot it, but the house elves were bound to the building, not the position of headmaster. They obeyed the teachers, because they worked for the school, but in the end, the teachers couldn't command the elves to do anything that would harm the students

The Carrows had wondered why the students didn't seem to bow to their punishment of withholding meals, well, the elves made sure that sandwiches were placed in the common rooms to give the students the food that they needed. While the Carrows could forbid that they students got to eat in the Great Hall, nobody could stop the elves from sending it to the common rooms, as it was part of the school's founding charter. No student was to go hungry on orders of any teacher. The elves would always obey to the charter of the school over a bad teacher.

Then, when the Gryffindor crest, the last of the four, glowed fully, she felt the full weight of the wards settle into her magic. It was the way of the school to tell her that she was now the official headmistress. She had to smile. It was seven in the morning and the whole operation had taken four hours. Four hours were all that had been needed to free their country from a threat that had been haunting them since the early seventies. She was incredibly happy. Now she only needed to assemble those of the teachers that weren't on the Death Eater's side, meaning everybody except them, and have them help her arrest the ones that had lost their magic.

The old cells down in the dungeons would find a good use today. It would take some time until they could declare that the war was over, but they were really close now.

* * *

><p>The students of Hogwarts were confused when they found an unusual development in the Great Hall. As per the new rules, they were only allowed into the Great Hall for breakfast from a quarter past eight to a quarter to nine in the morning, they all waited outside until the doors opened. Some noticed that there was a much lesser number of senior members of Slytherin with the occasional Ravenclaw also missing. The male seventh year Slytherins were even completely absent and of the females only Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis were present. The sixth years had a similarly low number.<p>

Then the doors opened and some students were shocked to see Professor McGonagall sitting in the seat reserved for the headmaster.

"Come in everybody, take your seats and eat. I have some important announcements to make after breakfast," Professor McGonagall called out smiling, which was a good sign in the eyes of most students.

They all took seats and started eating, not really daring to talk much, as that had been strictly forbidden by Snape and the Carrows before. Who were suspiciously absent. Finally they finished eating and turned to look at Professor McGonagall.

"I am sure most of you are wondering why I'm sitting in the seat of the head of the school," she started her speech, "Well, the reason is that as of seven o'clock this morning I am the headmistress of Hogwarts."

That caused cheers from three houses and a few relieved smiles from the Slytherin table. Though many members of that house were outraged.

"Thank you all. From today on things will change massively around here. The last three months were a disgrace for our proud school and I won't let that continue," She said.

"The dark lord will not allow that!" One obnoxious fifth-year Slytherin girl shouted only to be hit with a stunner from Professor Flitwick, who then bound her in ropes.

"Thank you, Filius, I think Miss Warrington will join the others in the cells in the dungeons," Professor McGonagall said pleasantly, to the surprise of the students, "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, things will change. We will return to being the premier school for magic in our country without teachers and students torturing and oppressing other students. We will also clean the school of any dark object, any potions used to control or harm another person, and yes, that does include love potions, and anybody that thinks he had a right to harm another person.

"Over the past months, ever since the Ministry fell into the hands of the terrorist organisation, also known as the Death Eaters and their leader, Tom Marvolo Riddle, more commonly known as You-Know-Who, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were busy trying to find a way to cut the magic that allowed Riddle to cheat his death in 1981, when he murdered James and Lily Potter. Harry and Hermione, with the help of William and Fleur Weasley, managed to undo the horrible magic Riddle had performed to bind himself to life. They trapped his soul in a magical amulet.

"That happened a few days ago. Tom Riddle was neutralised at that time, but still not dead. For that one other step had to be done. His magic had to be drained in a safe way. As the only option for that is directing the magic into large magical wards, they contacted me to add the magic to the wards of Hogwarts. The school's magic would always overpower any kind of dark taint that that murderer's dark magic would have. At three o'clock last night, I connected the amulet to the school's wards when our dear headmaster and his compatriots were fast asleep. At seven in the morning, the deed was done. Tom Marvolo Riddle is dead," she declared and the students erupted in loud cheers.

Some hugged their friends, some cried in relief, some didn't want to believe it, but they knew Professor McGonagall too well to doubt her in this regard. Secretly she was glad that none of the Death Eaters had noticed the sudden disappearance of their leader. Finally, after twenty minutes of celebration, it was quiet enough to continue.

"We found out, when we went to apprehend the criminals that have harmed the students, that the draining of You-Know-Who's magic also drained the magic of everybody that bore his dark mark. Those that were marked that is, are either squibs now, or dead. I can tell you that all students that bore the mark survived, but that Amycus Carrow and Severus Snape are dead. Alecto Carrow is imprisoned in one of the school's old cells in the dungeons, as are all the students that were found with the dark mark. As we lack a number of teachers, we're going to cancel classes for this week," she said, causing another round of cheers.

"Right now the Order of the Phoenix is securing the Ministry of Magic. Everybody working there will be tested under veritaserum about their guilt or innocence in the regime of terror that has been allowed to happen over the last few months. One thing I want to make very clear. There will be a no-tolerance policy for bullying other students from now on. Blood status won't win you any points anymore. The squads that were set up to ensure the obedience of other students are dismissed effective immediately. Thanks to the power boost that the wards got, I'll know immediately if you break those rules. And I won't let that go with simple point deduction and a soft detention.

"Furthermore, the four already played Quidditch matches are declared void. They'll be repeated in the new year when all those students that were prevented from attending Hogwarts have returned. We all know that they were biased and not at all a show of great abilities, only who could pay for the best broom and intimidation of others what would happen if they dared to beat Slytherin. That has nothing to do with the spirit of Quidditch. I hope that soon we can start anew and bring this year to a good end. You're free to go to your common rooms or stroll around the castle," McGonagall ended her speech.

The happy students rushed out of the hall mostly. Some remained. Among them the closest friends of Harry and Hermione. They walked up to the head table. In the centre was Neville Longbottom. He had come a long way since his first year at school. He stood tall and strong. She knew that he had been the leader of the student resistance. The other was Luna Lovegood. Her mysterious smile had dimmed a bit since the Carrows had started to punish the students regularly, especially her, as her father was the editor of the Quibbler, the only publication that had dared printing anything against the Death Eaters, but now it was stronger than before again. The last was Ginny Weasley, who she would be having some serious words with and force her into a mental evaluation from Poppy.

"Are Harry and Hermione coming back?" Neville asked.

"That's their plan. I spoke to them a few days ago when we came up with the plan to coordinate the death of Tom Riddle and the strike against the Ministry. We needed a few days to set everything up. Trying anything directly after being known to meet Bill and Fleur for tea on a Hogsmeade weekend would have been too dangerous," McGonagall answered.

"So, we can return to how things were before as soon as we have new teachers and some of the old ones, like Hagrid, back?" Ginny asked.

"In some way yes, in some way there will be changes," McGonagall said, "I want to make Hogwarts better and that will require that certain things are changed. We also have to undo a lot of damage that the bigoted teachings of the Carrows have caused. It will take time, but thanks to a lot of the main antagonists now being squibs or dead, we have a better chance."

"They're really squibs now, even Malfoy?" Ginny asked.

"Yes. They'll have to get used to not being at the top of society anymore. I think it will be a very healthy lesson. With others it will be harder, but I'm confident in achieving it," McGonagall confirmed.

"I have to write Daddy, so that he can print the news," Luna said happily and skipped out of the Great Hall.

"I guess I should write to Gran as well. If the Order was involved, Ginny's parents probably already are informed," Neville mused.

"True, I would also like to talk to Miss Weasley about some personal things that concern her family," Professor McGonagall said smiling and Neville left with a large smile and a much easier step.

"Did anything happen, Professor?" Ginny asked concerned.

"Let's go to my office, there we can talk in private. This isn't something that should be discussed in the open, Miss Weasley," McGonagall said and led the girl to the headmaster's office.

When they were inside, McGonagall subtly locked the door to prevent that the girl ran off. Once they had both sat down, McGonagall started talking.

"The reason why I called you here is that there has been a serious break of the terms set out for your mother back in 1987. I'm fairly sure you and your three next older brothers weren't told, but your mother came very close to spending a number of years in Azkaban," McGonagall said seriously and Ginny was totally shocked.

"What? But she would never commit a crime or use dark magic. Why would she be that close to time at Azkaban?" Ginny asked horrified, "She's a wonderful woman."

"Line theft," McGonagall stated, making Ginny gulp.

That was a serious offence if you were caught and the offending party demanded retribution. The Wizengamot would normally always judge in favour of the injured party. And it was laughable to think that anybody would try to do that with a Weasley. They were too poor for that, even if they were purebloods.

"What happened?" Ginny asked frightened.

"Your mother never truly got over the deaths of your uncles Fabian and Gideon. She tried to compensate by concentrating on her children and making sure that you were safe. From there on some mental problems developed. First was that she created an optimal image of what her children should do with their lives. In the beginning that wasn't really a reason for worry. She only encouraged doing your best at school, taking responsibilities serious and being respectful to your teachers. In itself that would have been harmless.

"But then she found faults with all the girlfriends of your oldest brother and he broke up with a number of them, because they couldn't stand the thought of being related to your mother, should anything serious develop. Your mother saw his constantly changing girlfriends as improper and decided to find him the perfect bride. The girl was decided to be a Hufflepuff girl in Bill's year. From an old family, with good manners in her opinion, proper attire and a good dowry. She sent both Bill and the girl love potions with their food. Nobody noticed. The girl broke up with her boyfriend, whom she actually truly loved and who was heartbroken over her going after Bill, which made him bitter towards her.

"It went on for nearly all of Bill's sixth year and some months of his seventh year. Your mother also didn't want to chance anything with your second oldest brother Charlie and went the same way as with Bill. Thankfully it only started in his fourth year and he wasn't under the potion for long. The one to notice that Bill and Charlie behaved off was Percy. He went to Madam Pomfrey and she put all four under a flushing potion. The Hufflepuff girl was devastated how she had lost her boyfriend and the Ravenclaw girl that was chosen for Charlie also wasn't happy, but for her it wasn't that bad, as she had at least liked Charlie a bit and knew that he was completely innocent in the matter.

"The parents of the Hufflepuff girl were going to sue your mother, who was forced to confess her actions, which your father didn't tolerate in any way and was furious about. Professor Dumbledore managed to stall them until the results of a medical examination were ready. It turned out that your mother was mentally unstable. She had lost her sense of right and wrong and thought it perfectly acceptable to help things along, as she called it. On the condition that she would be treated in a closed ward of St. Mungo's for a few months and some reparation, they agreed to not raise charges against Molly. Probably a big part of the reason was that there were so many innocent children that would suffer. Still, your mother had to promise to never again try anything like that. After the treatment by the mind healer, sadly not as long as advised, but it was the longest your father could afford, it seemed as if the worst of her obsessions had been curbed.

"Your father kept a close eye on her for the next few years. The problem that has come up is that your brother has given Hermione Granger love potions and we have documentation that Harry Potter was also under potions, among them love potions keyed to you, that Madam Pomfrey found at the beginning of his sixth year. She gave him immunisation potions that neutralised any kind of non-medical potion in his system" McGonagall pointed out.

Ginny paled. This could be so bad for her.

"I see you realise the consequences. As you're a minor, you will get away with a severe warning. This could have sent you to Azkaban, Ginny. I know your mother always told you fantasy stories about the Boy-Who-Lived, but there is a major difference between the real Harry Potter and the fantasy figure that those stories entailed. Harry isn't a knight in shining armour that rescues the damsel in distress. He isn't some flawless hero. Oh, he definitely is a hero, a very fine young man, but he has a lot of flaws. He has a hot temper, he likes to keep peace, even if he should speak out, he bottles all his problems up and his handwriting resembles chicken scratch. He is a normal wizard, not some glorified image.

"And you should also remember, he is now head of a number of ancient and noble houses. The Wizengamot is even harsher against those trying to commit line theft against them, than just a normal pureblood house. I suggest you honestly think about what you want to do with your life, now that you have the chance. First though, you're going to see Madam Pomfrey for a full physical and mental examination. I won't risk overlooking a similar trauma that your mother carried around. It should have happened directly after your involvement with the Chamber of Secrets disaster, but Professor Dumbledore convinced your parents that it wasn't necessary. A grave error. Madam Pomfrey expects you already and is waiting at the bottom of the stairs. See this as a chance to overcome a silly obsession. I want to be honest, I don't think that you ever had much of a chance against Hermione.

"Had there not been potions influencing both of them massively, they would probably have come together in their fifth or sixth year. In regards of your exemplary behaviour this year, and your engagement to protect the younger students against the horror of the last months, I really want to help you, Ginny. I think you're as much a victim here as the other two. You grew up with an idealised idea of a hero that coincidentally has the same name as a boy that would have simply loved to have you as a normal friend. Perhaps, after the examination is done and you got help, you can at least have that," McGonagall said softly and dismissed Ginny.

She really hoped that they could help the girl.

* * *

><p><strong>Until Tomorrow.<strong>


	6. Weasley Meeting

**Weasley Meeting **

Arthur Weasley sat in his chair in his office at the Ministry. They had taken it back. They had won. There were still some supporters of You-Know-Who out there, the snatchers and werewolves under Greyback for example, but they had got rid of all Death Eaters and would rat out the supporters at the Ministry. Most had come out when they had taken over and were already arrested and on their ways to the holding cells. Willing supporters of a terror regime. They had organised the storm of the Ministry from two sides within two days. It had been a total surprise, but when the information that a coordinated strike against the Ministry was planned, that the Death Eaters would be squibs or dead by that time and that Voldemort was already taken out of the picture, came in through Bill and Fleur, the Order had acted.

Bill had given them the time frame in which they would act. They had mobilised the whole Order and were joined by Harry and Hermione, who had been the ones responsible for the defeat of You-Know-Who. The operation had worked out perfectly. They had used the taboo against the snatchers and had brought them into the atrium of the Ministry after they had secured all departments. Without the Death Eaters in the building, they had an easy time stunning those that supported them. The common way was that one part of a team was disillusioned while the other one, a ministry member, went to ask the supporter a question about work. The disillusioned one would stun and then the target would be tied up and sent to the holding cells.

Kingsley had organised the whole stock of portkeys to the cells that the DMLE had. They would take care of the time-intensive parts later, once they got rid of everybody. It had taken two hours of coordinated work and taking out the communication lines of the Ministry, but they had got them all. Now he was a bit exhausted. He also had to take a bit of time to fully take in that they had won. And all without massive bloodshed. Just when he was about ready to go and help interrogating the prisoners, Bill appeared in his office.

"Bill, what do you need?" He asked.

"We need to talk, Dad. And it's important that we do it now, while Mum and Ron are otherwise busy," Bill said seriously.

"What did happen?" Arthur asked worriedly.

"Mum brewed love potions keyed to Ron and Ginny and dosed Harry and Hermione with them. Harry found out at the beginning of his sixth year that there were potions in his system and got a cleansing potion from Madam Pomfrey and immunisation potions. He freed Hermione from their influence when Ron left them behind. He knows, thanks to Ron being the only one that could have continued dosing Hermione, that he was behind them. But Ron is too inept at Potions to have successfully brewed them. It had to be Mum, as Ginny wouldn't have learned how to do it before she reached sixth year. It's NEWT level material. And while the twins have them in their product line, theirs only work for one day at most. And those are their most expensive ones. I asked them about it. They informed me that it wasn't a good prank to control a person's feelings long-term," Bill said.

Arthur hid his face in his hands.

"Oh Merlin, I thought we had stopped that ten years ago. She seemed to be okay," he groaned, "On top of it Harry is part of a noble house. That can't end well. And just when I thought that we would be getting back to our feet."

"I doubt that Harry will be pressing charges. But he will demand that Mum gets mental treatment again and an oath that she will never again brew love potions or buy some to use on another person," Bill stated seriously, "He's angrier about what was done to Hermione than him, as he wasn't really hit. And the detection of love potions had the effect that other potions that were used to control him were also flushed from his body. My guess is Dumbledore and Snape used them to control and hinder him. I have come to the conclusion that Dumbledore was either totally senile or insane by now. He certainly wasn't fit to lead anybody."

"Explain," Arthur said and Bill gave him all the information about what had happened.

Harry and Hermione had decided that Arthur was trustworthy and needed the whole story to be able to take appropriate action to prevent a scandal like back in 1987. This time they wouldn't recover otherwise.

* * *

><p>Ron Weasley wasn't a happy wizard. He had thought that now that You-Know-Who was dead and the evil Death Eaters were all squibs, with a few dead ones among them, things would be perfect again. He would get Hermione, Ginny would get Harry and he wouldn't ever have to really work, because he was famous for being the best friend of Harry Potter. Sadly that wasn't the case. He had been part of the group that took back the Ministry, even if he didn't get a chance to talk to Harry and Hermione. Well, he supposed he could do that later, apologise for the horcrux messing his mind up badly and then they would forgive him. After all, Harry was potioned to see anything that Ron did less drastic than it might have been and Hermione had enough love potion in her system to forgive him anything after a short time.<p>

So when his father told him that they were going back to the Burrow now that they had taken the Ministry back and anybody that posed a problem was in the holding cells, he had been happy. He noticed that all members of the Weasley family were there, including Percy, who looked as if a massive weight had been gone from his shoulders. He didn't like that his father seemed to prevent the twins from hexing the family abandoning git. Now he was waiting what this meant. He didn't see Harry or Hermione, which he had somewhat expected after the fight was finally over. He was truly taken by surprise when his father demanded that they all put their wands onto the table and when they were there, he spelled them under a protective field that would only fall once the family meeting was considered finished.

"I have some serious things to discuss and invoke the Weasley family secrecy oath as head of the Weasley family," Arthur said seriously, which shocked many.

"As heir to the Weasley family I uphold the head of family's decision about the oath of secrecy," Bill then added and a wave of magic shot through every member of the Weasley family.

Ron realised that this wouldn't be a good conversation. He had never experienced that this oath was invoked.

"It is time that we told you some important things that happened ten years ago, as they are the prelude to what we need to discuss today, which is also the reason why I had Percy questioned under veritaserum to find out his motivations behind abandoning the family," Arthur said, which made the others gasp and the twins look at their next older brother in a different light.

Arthur then proceeded, to the dismay of Molly, to inform his children, even Ginny, who had been allowed to attend the meeting and had used Professor McGonagall's floo to come to the Burrow for the next two days. She was actually very silent and seemed disturbed by something, of a tale that had been kept hidden from the youngest four, as they had been too young to really understand. Fred and George looked at their mother horrified. Ron didn't know why she had needed to put Charlie and Bill under potions as well as the girls and Ginny didn't comment on anything.

"As you see, we barely escaped a catastrophe. I wouldn't have been able to raise you on my own and continue working at the Ministry at the same time, which was our only income. The reason why we had so little money all the time was that we still had to pay back the loan I had to take up to cover the costs of having your mother treated at St. Mungo's, which was the only reason she was even kept out of Azkaban, which would have been the consequence of being convicted for line theft. There are no exceptions in our society. I was convinced that she had learned from that and that the healers had got her far enough that she wouldn't have a relapse. But sadly that wasn't the case. I know that I haven't taught you all the intricacies of pureblood law, as I think that most of it are discriminative rubbish.

"One thing though I have taught you all and that is the consequences that can take place if you mess with the truly important families. Those that have the noble attribute attached to their name," Arthur said sternly.

Except for Ron all the others nodded. Ginny seemed to be close to tears.

"We can consider ourselves lucky that the one that was a victim of your mother's newest attempt to force her ideas of a perfect family with love potions, doesn't hold it against our whole family, but he has stated his demands for that," Arthur said.

Percy now looked up.

"It's Harry, isn't it?" He asked forlornly.

"Yes," Arthur confirmed gravely, "He and Hermione to be exact."

Ron paled. He knew that his father didn't like love potions, but he had never understood the reason. After all, he didn't tell the twins off for selling them at their joke shop. He had thought it was a perfectly okay way to make sure you got the girl you wanted, like he did with Hermione. But seemingly there were harsh consequences that could come from it. He grit his teeth. Harry again got in the way of what he wanted, the girl he wanted.

"Ron, what do you have to say in your defence? It was you after all that kept them under the potion all the time while you were out on your mission until you left them in a temper tantrum," Arthur asked sternly.

Ron looked into the eyes of all his brothers and none of them showed any sympathy. Ginny was crying and looking at the ground.

"It was just a love potion, nothing bad. And I wanted Hermione to notice me. She always wanted to talk about Harry this and Harry that. And I wanted her to be mine. Mum said that we would be a good couple and that it would make sure that I wouldn't fail at school. But Hermione always argued with me and nagged me. I wanted that she didn't do that and instead didn't like Harry. And, as a muggleborn, she wouldn't have had any standing in our world without a pureblood husband. So what was the harm, she would have profited from it as well. And why would it matter that Harry was given a push towards Ginny? He would then have had her and not gone after Hermione," Ron said petulantly.

"Ron you idiot, did you ever listen to the lessons Dad gave us?" Fred exclaimed, "I know that Ginny got her mind screwed up by the stories Mum told her and that the Chamber incident didn't help at all with her getting over her silly crush and seeing Harry for the real person he is, but you have no such reason. And there is a difference between the types of love potion."

"Yes, the ones we have at the shop last at most one day. We do business with pranks that make people laugh, never with anything harmful. The imperius curse is banned for a reason. Love potions that last longer than a day, take away the free will of a person over time. In case you didn't realise, had you married Hermione with her being put under love potions, and slept with her, it would have been rape. Nothing else. A crime," George continued.

"And Harry is head of the ancient and noble house of Potter since he turned seventeen," Percy softly said, "Not to mention that he can claim the Black headship if he wants to, as his godfather left him everything as his sole heir. If he raised charges, the automatic result would be at least five years at Azkaban."

"So, if anybody had found out about this and raised a stink, you and Mum would spend time at Azkaban and Ginny would be expelled in a similar situation as Hagrid for two years. The only difference would be that, as she passed her OWLs, she would be allowed to get a new wand upon turning seventeen. But the black mark would always haunt her," Bill stated.

"I only wanted my babies to be happy and have good lives," Molly wailed.

"Your ideas of what makes a happy life are vastly different from that of other people, Mum. You already drove Charlie and me away when you wouldn't let us follow our dreams when we graduated. Percy simply didn't have the problems, because he wanted to go into the Ministry, to have a chance to change things there. But with how corrupt people were there, he had to lie low and collect evidence," Bill said, having heard Percy's confession under veritaserum.

"What?" George asked shocked.

"Yes, when I entered the Ministry after my NEWTs, I wanted to learn everything I could and impress all the important people there. But soon I noticed that nothing ever got done, because certain people blocked processes, let evidence vanish, or took bribes to not report criminal actions. The real reason why I was made the personal assistant of Fudge, was that I had a job given to me by Madam Bones. She noticed how unhappy I was with how things were done there and offered me a spot in her department, one of the few that I could actually stand after a year of working at the Ministry. She outlined how things had gone out of control and how the Ministry was ripe for the taking after Fudge started to slander Harry in the press.

"My job was to pretend to fully support Fudge in anything and to gather evidence that could be used against any corrupt member of the Ministry. By distancing myself from my family I got that necessary insider position. The problem was that Madam Bones was killed too early on and that nobody else really gave a damn about the things that were wrong. Scrimgeour was a pompous idiot. Better than Fudge, but he had no clue of how to clean house, which would have been the one way to stop the takeover. We were so infested at the inside that the takeover only needed the death of the Minister to be complete.

"Do you want to know why the Ministry fell? About half of the leading positions were held by Death Eaters or at least pureblood supremacists. You had a handful of people that were willing to speak out, the others only ducked their heads and did as they were told from the people in those positions above them. With Thicknesse being Minister, and under the imperius curse, Umbridge not needing any convincing to play along, as she loved having that power and being allowed to finally hunt the muggleborns down, the two top positions were under their control. The plan has been worked on since the seventies. Most of the people that were now revealed as Death Eaters had been in their positions before the first fall of You-Know-Who.

"I know that the takeover was only prevented by the miracle of Harry somehow separating You-Know-Who from his body and surviving the killing curse. But even back then, when the horrors of the war were still fresh in mind, there was no consequent action to root out spies and traitors. Instead, after getting off by bribing the Minister with enough gold to accept the imperius curse defence, lots of rich Death Eaters got off. After lying low for one or two years they continued the plan, knowing that their leader would return to them in the near future.

"The main culprit for the placement of the key players at the Ministry was Lucius Malfoy. He bought several decisions on who should gain an open position as department head or deputy of the department head. Under Fudge he got six department head positions filled with supporters of You-Know-Who. The gold to do so came from illegal businesses, which were hidden well enough that the DMLE didn't have enough proof to close them down. Not to mention that Fudge always blocked any true investigation in the business deals of the so-called upstanding pureblood members of society. What was done today was actually the only thing that can help us to start anew and get out of the swamp of corruption that we're in up to our chins," Percy ranted.

"Wow, so you were a spy all the time?" George asked.

"Ever since seeing what a disgrace was made out of the Triwizard Tournament. I mean, I was part of the team that was present at the negotiations and I worked hours on making sure that everything went off without a hitch. I coordinated the transport of the dragons to the Forbidden Forest, made sure that no area with high muggle settlement was crossed, secured the permissions of the countries that they had to go through and so on. Do you have any idea what kind of bureaucratic nightmare it was to secure a fourth dragon in just three weeks?" Percy asked.

"I can tell you that my superiors at the preserve weren't happy at all at the demands to find a fourth nesting mother dragon to be brought to the Tournament on short notice. We had been informed about the plans for the first task a year in advance to ensure that we had three female dragons that were nesting at the right time. Even if the schools wouldn't have agreed, we would've only had a few more dragon eggs at the time. Nothing problematic. We had chosen three of the least aggressive breeds and manipulated their mating time. Normally the Hungarian Horntail wouldn't have been taken to Hogwarts, but it was simply the only other nesting mother we had. The Welsh Green, the Swedish Shortsnout and the Chinese Fireball are breeds that can easily be calmed down with enough manpower. A Horntail is a whole different story. You need to be extremely careful to handle one of them," Charlie added.

"And the idiot Bagman was only happy to have the publicity of Harry being in the Tournament to advertise it better. He didn't help with anything. For him it was only commenting on the tasks and betting on the winner to deal with his gambling debts. The quotes for Harry would have been the most interesting point in the whole thing for him. Not that we had to work overtime to get everything cleared. The complaints of France and Bulgaria for the additional competition for the champions from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, commissioning a fourth golden egg, which only got ready the very morning of the task, stopping the press from demanding entry at the castle for the whole time of the tournament instead of just the tasks and much more," Percy listed.

"And then, when I got those letters, I did ask a few others if the handwriting was correct after Mr Crouch had been absent for two weeks and they confirmed it was his and that I should simply enjoy the time they had without him breathing down all our necks, demanding perfection all the time. If we did what he wrote, we would be alright. As they were the senior members of the department, I didn't question it. Which was an error. I did report it to the responsible superior after a month, when I found it strange, but nothing ever came from it, so I didn't act more, as I was too busy."

The Weasleys nodded. Then they turned to Ginny, who was still crying.

"So, what is your stand on this, Ginny?" Arthur asked.

"I talked to Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey after Professor McGonagall informed us about the death of You-Know-Who and the loss of magic for the Death Eaters. She told me very clearly what she thought of this and how Mum had had problems before. I didn't realise that it could have been ruled as line theft. I just, all my life I had been told that it would be wonderful to marry Harry Potter. And after my first year, when he had saved my life, it seemed just like fate wanted us together. I honestly only wanted to make him notice me a bit more. I slipped one dose of the potion that Mum had sent me into his juice one morning to see if he would act on it. He didn't, but he looked interested.

"So I bid my time. The day of the Quidditch match, when I didn't have Dean as a boyfriend anymore, I did it again. Only enough to last for a few hours. But when I kissed him and he didn't push me away, I thought that he liked me too, that we would be a great couple. I didn't give him any doses after that anymore," Ginny said, "I mean, the potion should only have lasted a day at most. That was what Fred and George said was the longest any of their love potions would work. I didn't see the harm in that to find out if he would have been able to fall in love with me. Mum said to get the interest of a boy adding a bit of the potion wasn't bad after all. Only when Professor McGonagall told me what had really been going on, I realised what could have happened. I was too obsessed to really notice anything outside of my dream coming true.

"Madam Pomfrey says that I still have lingering problems from the time Tom possessed me. That she will have a mind healer come to the school for me to have sessions once a week. I never wanted to hurt anyone again after I had nearly been responsible for the deaths of the students that were lucky to only have been petrified. If Nick hadn't been there that time with Justin, the basilisk would have killed him. I couldn't have lived with that guilt," Ginny confessed and broke into more sobs.

Fleur walked over to her and rubbed her back consolingly. At least she hadn't done it for totally selfish reasons like Ron.

"Aright, we will let Ginny go through the therapy that Professor McGonagall has arranged for her and I'm glad that she wants to do it. While I'm truly disappointed that you thought using something like a love potion was acceptable, I have to admit that I should have sat all of you that didn't know the history of our family's problems down when you were fourteen and old enough to understand. But I wanted to protect your mother, thinking that she had overcome her problems," Arthur admitted, "This is what is going to happen. Ginny, you'll do everything that Madam Pomfrey tells you to do, concentrate on your studies and do your best to graduate with good grades to let you take any path you want to take for a career. I'll support anything you decide to do. Ron, you'll also return to Hogwarts and you better honestly apologise to Harry and Hermione, especially Hermione. I don't know if she can forgive you, but that's the only way to go. You'll also buckle down to catch up on the three months of material you missed thanks to the mission. I expect that there will be a lowering of the demands for what grades you need to have reached in your NEWTs for several careers. Use that."

Ron grumbled, but all of his family glaring at him shut him up.

"Fred and George, I want you to take any kind of love potions from your shop. That kind of potion brings too many problems and we right now don't need any of the comments in that regard. You have a lot of other great products, so concentrate on them," Arthur said.

"Yes, Dad, after hearing this story, we would have done that anyway," Fred confirmed.

"Percy, I want you to hand the evidence that you collected over the years over to Kingsley Shacklebolt. He's going to be interim Minister for now and in charge of the trials for the ones that we dumped in the holding cells. I guess with your material we can ensure that those that deserve it, are thrown into prison for a long time. More than enough time for us to clean up our world. We are incredibly lucky that we got away with just one and a half years of true war. It could have been much, much worse," Arthur commented.

"I'll do that, Dad," Percy nodded.

"And Molly, you're going to be in therapy as well. I'll somehow get the money to have you treated the full way this time," Arthur said sternly, "I won't take a risk again. This could have destroyed our family, just because you couldn't let go of your obsessions."

Molly looked angry, but also cried for all her dreams and her babies' dreams being destroyed.

"I'll help out with a few galleons each month as well, Dad," Percy said, "I don't want to ever again go through something like back when I was in first year. It was horrible how the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws shunned me, even if I didn't do anything wrong, just because I was a Weasley. It took so much work to get over the stigma."

"Wait, you were shunned over this?" Ron asked stupidly.

"Yes, all of us were, Bill and I included," Charlie said, "But we could balance it out better than Percy, who was just a first-year. We were both on the Quidditch team and Bill was headboy. Nobody dared going against Bill openly, but they talked behind our backs. The fact that I was an amazing seeker and won our house the Quidditch cup, did a lot to bring Gryffindor back in line and shut up some others. The Slytherins still caused trouble and used the situation to their advantage. But where normally the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws would have at least stayed neutral or would have taken our side, they now shunned us and stood behind their house members that had been wronged."

"Sounds like how Harry was treated in second year over the Chamber of Secrets mess," George said.

"It was incredibly similar," Percy confirmed, "It was one reason why I told the Gryffindors that spouted that nonsense off massively and gave the worst offenders detention. Even if it would have been nice to have some more support from the teachers in that."

"So, your overdone perfectionism," Fred started.

"Was his coping mechanism. If they couldn't find a flaw in his work, he was on the safe side," Bill explained, "Many of the teachers were horrified with what had happened and many scrutinised all of us more than any other student. I think Percy got more unfair detentions in his first year, including the connected point loss, than any other student ever at Hogwarts. And he was the one that had brought everything to light. It wasn't fair, but with going the way of giving the least possible points of attack, he got through it."

For Fred and George now a lot of things about the brother that had always been too much of a rule stickler became clear.

* * *

><p>Harry and Hermione half lay, half sat on the large couch in the movie room at the mansion, enjoying a movie that they had bought at a shop in Littlehampton. Hermione had said that it had been really popular when it had been played in the cinema. Independence Day had been one of the most successful movies of the previous years and as it was on sale at the shop, they had decided to buy it. Now they watched the movie, with a large bowl of popcorn, Harry behind Hermione, holding her and her regularly feeding him with the popcorn.<p>

The movie was really good and they enjoyed it massively. When it was over, Hermione cuddled up to Harry and simply let him hold her.

"It's really over, we don't have to fight anymore," she whispered to him.

"Yes, I still have trouble believing it. It all went so well. I didn't expect it to be that easy to take the Ministry back," Harry admitted.

"Neither did I, I expected that at least some of those jerks would have given any resistance, but they fell for the strategy every single time. I mean, I only had to follow my partner into a department, wait for a clear shot and stun my targets. And thanks to Kingsley convincing most of the aurors to assist in taking the Ministry back, we had enough people that could walk into another department easily. It was a bloodless operation. The one question that always comes up in my head is, why didn't it happen before?" Hermione asked.

"I think because they didn't have anybody organising this kind of coordinated strike and too many of the leaders being too caught up in politics and their personal agenda. In a way it was great that the Ministry had fallen into enemy hands. It justified a thorough clean-up. The massive down side of it sadly outweighs it though. Too many were killed and thrown into Azkaban for crimes they didn't commit. Too many lost family members. We can only be glad that it only lasted four months. Had they managed to do more, the clean-up would be a lot harder. Right now, only the starting measures have been implemented. It can all be undone," Harry told her, while playing with her long hair.

"I'm just glad that we already got the poor muggleborns out of Azkaban. Thankfully Umbridge didn't have too much time to persecute them. She started the despicable commission in September. And we killed her early in November. Still too long, but imagine if she had been able to continue," Hermione shuddered.

"I know. I'm so glad that you were with me and didn't get caught in her net. She would have been capable of using you to make an example. After all, you were the one that got her trapped with the centaurs," Harry mentioned.

"Dumbledore should have just left her there," Hermione grumbled.

"True, but we both know that he was a senile old bastard," Harry told her and then started tickling her, which made her squeak before she returned the favour, making him laugh too.

When they finally stopped, Hermione lay resting on Harry's chest.

"Have I told you how lucky I am to have you, Hermione?" Harry asked softly.

"Sometimes, but it's always nice to hear it, Harry," She answered.

"I love you," Harry whispered.

Hermione was shocked. He had never said that he loved her before, but she was incredibly happy.

"I love you too," she replied and kissed him demandingly.

Harry was only too willing to give into her demands.

* * *

><p><strong>And another chapter done. Till next time.<strong>


	7. New Hogwarts

**Hey everybody. Here is chapter seven. Enjoy.**

* * *

><p><strong>New Hogwarts<strong>

It was the tenth of December when the Hogwarts Express ran for a special journey. It had been decided that, because of extenuating circumstances, the school year would run into half of July instead of just half of June. One month more for the ones that hadn't had the chance to attend Hogwarts this year so far to catch up with their classmates. The train carried all those students, including the muggleborn first-years, to the school for a short introduction of Hogwarts and to give the older students the information what topics had been covered so far.

For any class not taking OWLs and NEWTs that would mean they also would get compressed repetition classes on the things taught so far. On board of the train were also several prefects and the new headboy and headgirl, who had also not had the chance to go to school. The number of students wasn't that large, but it was substantial. About perhaps a quarter of the school had not been present this year so far.

There were only twelve days left until the train would return those students that wished to spend Christmas at home, which would be nearly the whole school, after the terror of the first term. People wanted to see their loved ones and celebrate that they had survived the regime of Tom Riddle. Kingsley Shacklebolt was currently Minister of Magic and working relentlessly with the support of those that were all for change at the Ministry. Their goal was to get the ones that had supported the Death Eaters, as well as those Death Eaters that had survived the loss of their magic, pay for their crimes.

Percy's List, as it was now called, was invaluable to the investigators. Kingsley was honestly impressed when he heard how Madam Bones had started the process of cleaning the Ministry when she had still been alive. Right now all those remaining at the Ministry had to work overtime, as they lacked a lot of man power. Kingsley had already found one solution to moderate the workload and was putting things in place for a second. He had cut off any kind of activity that wasn't vital. Meaning, things like control of other magical races was cancelled, they could govern themselves in his mind and it would be for a later time to try and mend bridges. The floo regulation was cut down to two people. Just setting up new floo accesses and making sure that the system didn't break down was done.

Control of fireplaces like in the past was cancelled. They could take care of small fry criminals that might use the network, once they found out about the reduced staff that was, when the bigger fishes were fried. The Games and Sports Department was down to three people that simply made sure that the Quidditch league was informed about certain rules being changed again. Like only letting purebloods play. The teams were happy that they could get their best players of other blood statuses back.

The second way was inviting all the ones that had applied for jobs in the past, but had been refused because of their blood status. If they were still interested, they were welcome to take up a job that they were qualified for. Right now there were too many jobs and too few applicants. And Kingsley set up a team that ensured that only qualification was the deciding factor for filling the positions.

Harry and Hermione were treated like heroes on the train. Some of their classmates that had also gone on the run or left the country with their parents, were now back to finish their studies. The Daily Prophet had printed news about the victory over Voldemort and who had played the deciding roles in it. Thankfully, this time Harry wasn't the only one to experience the praise. Bill, Fleur, Professor McGonagall, the ones to take the Ministry back and of course Hermione, were also getting their fair share of fame. To Ron's anger, Ron was marginalised and he of course blamed Harry for it. Harry and Hermione refused to talk to him after his temper tantrum over his small mention in the papers.

Hermione had bluntly told him how she could as well tell the press how he had abandoned them in the tent, how he had put her under love potions and tried to force her into a relationship she would have detested, as she didn't like him at all. She had tolerated him for Harry and thought that over time he could become a good friend, nothing more. Ron was in a royal snitch over Harry and Hermione being a couple now. It had ended in him having to be treated at St. Mungo's for a severe case of powerful transfigurations to parts of his body. In fact Hermione hadn't held back at all over the insults he had thrown into her and Harry's faces. He had got biting orange flowers for hair, which bit him every five minutes at least, more if he cursed, his arms were turned into spider legs, which made him freak out, his eyes became those of an insect, which was complimented with ant mandibles at his mouth.

Next to that she had turned his remaining body into a bright yellow chicken and every time anybody addressed him by his name, he was forced to painfully lay an egg, which always exploded under him, burning his backside. The only one to really try to admonish Hermione had been Mrs Weasley, but Hermione had slapped her in the face and unloaded all her pent up fury against her and called her everything from an assistant to raping innocent girls to a crazy old bitch that couldn't accept that the world didn't revolve around her screwed up world views. At that point Mr Weasley had taken Mrs Weasley away to prevent the eruption of Harry, who had been turning more and more angry over the things Mrs Weasley tried to blame on Hermione. The two hadn't had any contact with Ron and Mrs Weasley after that and Mr Weasley had sent them a formal apology in the name of the Weasley family for the transgressions against them, also thanking them for not filing charges against Molly and Ron.

Harry and Hermione had agreed that they would wait with that, as they didn't want the other Weasleys that they liked to suffer from the stigma that the idiots that couldn't think for themselves would level against the whole family, and not just the ones that deserved it. And Mr Weasley, Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Percy and the twins didn't deserve any blame for the situation, and Ginny only a small part, which, while they couldn't agree with it, they could somewhat understand. Brainwashing was hard to overcome, especially with untreated mental heath problems from a severe trauma after the Chamber of Secrets.

Ginny had written both Harry and Hermione a letter, sincerely apologising and describing her reasons, even if they weren't justified, which she had finally realised, after talking with Madam Pomfrey and a mind healer a lot. As she was voluntarily seeking medical help and Harry hadn't really suffered from her actions, he was willing to give her a second chance, which made Hermione take a wait and see stance for now.

* * *

><p>When the train reached Hogsmeade, Harry and Hermione organised that everybody was safely in the carriages. It was honestly too cold to send the first-years over the lake. It had snowed and everything was covered in a thick layer of snow. No, that would be totally irresponsible. The carriages, which were equipped with skids instead of wheels, due to the weather, took the students to the castle and, after passing the gates, they found a large number of people holding lights waiting for them. The cheering of them when the students got out of the carriages was a really nice touch. Though Harry and Hermione were overwhelmed when they exited the last carriage from Hogsmeade, which they had taken after making sure that every student was on the way to Hogwarts.<p>

All the students loudly cheered and applauded, making them both blush and Harry put his arm around Hermione's waist to have some physical support from her closeness and to give her the same. The teacher in charge of the welcome committee was Professor Flitwick.

"Welcome everybody, please come in, it's much warmer inside the Great Hall," he told them all and the students were only too happy to follow the advice, "If the new first-years would please follow me into the chamber at this side, we'll have the sorting ceremony soon."

The ten children followed the small Professor and looked a bit nervous. The others were taken by their friends and shown into the Great Hall, all of them talking excitedly. Harry and Hermione went over to Neville and Ginny, who were the leaders of the ones that had given the Carrows the hardest time in taking control over the school. Luna directly besides them.

It took ten minutes for Professor McGonagall shooting a noise spell into the air.

"I know that you're all eager to greet your friends back properly, but we really need to have the sorting done so that we can start with our feast. There will be plenty of time to talk to everybody," she said with a smile.

The students nodded, having increased their respect for their headmistress massively after her vital role in the demise of Voldemort and the neutralisation of the danger that his followers had presented. They separated to their house tables and Professor Flitwick led a group of about twenty first-years towards the head table.

The Sorting Hat opened its mouth and started singing.

_One thousand years have come and gone,  
><em>_Since Hogwarts was created.  
><em>_No one back than would have dared hope,  
><em>_Believing history was started._

_We've been through times of peace and war,  
><em>_Have seen great deeds achieved,  
><em>_If anybody back then predicted the time,  
><em>_They wouldn't have believed._

_There were four people that had a dream,  
><em>_They wanted to teach Magic,  
><em>_To all those children far and wide,  
><em>_That had the talent for it._

_The first of them was Hufflepuff,  
><em>_The loyal, kind, old Soul,  
><em>_To give all children the chance to shine,  
><em>_Was her declared goal._

_The second one was Gryffindor,  
><em>_A brave man of noble deeds,  
><em>_He looked for those that shared his code,  
><em>_And all that did, he'd teach._

_The third of them was Ravenclaw,  
><em>_The wisest of them all.  
><em>_Her wits, her smarts and Cleverness,  
><em>_Made many follow her call._

_The fourth of them was Slytherin,  
><em>_Cunning and ambitious,  
><em>_To see his prized student's plans succeed,  
><em>_Was to him the most delicious._

_For years they taught in harmony,  
><em>_As each had a house of their own,  
><em>_But with problems mounting all the time,  
><em>_Discontent soon was shown._

_One of the last things done by all of them,  
><em>_Was giving me their minds,  
><em>_So that once they were here no more,  
><em>_The house placement would be kind._

_All four of them have gone since then,  
><em>_Leaving me to choose behind,  
><em>_To make sure their ideals survived,  
><em>_In the children's ready minds._

_We just survived a horrible war,  
><em>_Our heroes will be lauded,  
><em>_But don't repeat the mistakes of the past,  
><em>_Or the sacrifices will be voided._

_Don't let differences part you,  
><em>_Stand strong in what unites,  
><em>_It doesn't matter what colour you wear,  
><em>_What counts are your feelings inside._

_The four that we all hold so dear,  
><em>_The four that are remembered,  
><em>_Were once the closest friends there are,  
><em>_And wouldn't have surrendered,_

_To hate and greed or fear and lies,  
><em>_United they were strong,  
><em>_And woe the ones that tried to harm,  
><em>_The ones that did belong._

_Through outside action, Slytherin left,  
><em>_Leaving three mourning friends behind,  
><em>_Swearing to protect his true legacy,  
><em>_Not the discord that tainted his mind._

_Now listen hard and learn this well,  
><em>_As much history was forgotten,  
><em>_All attributes that those four cherished,  
><em>_Only together make you strong._

_I have to sort you in a house,  
><em>_One that suits you best,  
><em>_That doesn't mean that I don't worry each time,  
><em>_As it always is a test._

_Now it is time, my song is done,  
><em>_Listen to my warning,  
><em>_I don't want to hear that hate and greed,  
><em>_Again disturb this place of learning._

The students clapped loudly for the new song. Then the hat opened its brim again.

"For those students that wish to have a resorting done, now that they don't have to fear repercussions from their parents or other Death Eater relatives anymore, I will make an exception to not doing resorting," The Hat called out before lying still again.

"Well, you heard our Sorting Hat. I would ask any student that is unhappy with where he or she was sorted and only did so because of family pressure, to step forward and join the others. As some of you see, we already had a few students that asked for this chance before the Hat even offered it to all of you," Professor Flitwick stated.

A lot of children looked at each other and slowly, but surely, about thirty others stood and joined the group of twenty that already waited for their sorting.

Harry could hear Ron groan over this taking much longer and delaying dinner. He shot him a harsh glare that thankfully made him shut up. One after another the students were called up, seemingly the list had a spell on it that updated it automatically, and the first and second-years were sorted into their right houses. Many of the second years looked incredibly happy to change houses. And it weren't only Slytherins that had changed houses. There were Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors in the group as well. When the hat called out the new houses for them, their uniform trim changed.

Finally they were all sorted and Professor McGonagall opened the feast with the statement that the announcements could wait for after dinner.

Then it was time to eat. Hogwarts feasts were always special and great and everybody appreciated the massively changed atmosphere in the Great Hall. Students talked to each other, laughed, cried, and overall, coped with the terror that had been inflicted on them. After an hour, everybody was filled to bursting. During the reign of Snape and the Carrows, there rarely was food this splendid except at the Slytherin table. It was a clear show that they thought that house superior to the others, as it only had purebloods and the very rare halfblood from an old family in it.

Once the tables were cleared of food, drinks and tableware, Professor McGonagall stood and after a minute the Great Hall was silent enough for her to speak.

"We have come a long way this year through hard times. For the first time in living memory, Hogwarts had to bow to forces from the outside that had no other goal than oppressing the students of this school to confirm to their way of thinking. The attendance for children not from magical background was forbidden, because a number of cruel and stupid people decided to make up an absolute lie, which anybody with a brain would have been able to see through as ridiculous. But with them having taken over the Ministry of Magic for a while, we had to bow to violence to at least be able to protect those students that were here.

"Today I'm very happy that this mistake is corrected and everybody that wants to learn how to use his magic is welcome at Hogwarts once again. I tell you this now and I will repeat it, forget everything you learned in the Muggle Studies classes this year. Everything you learned there was a lie. It was meant to brainwash you to the Death Eater way of thinking. This mentality will no longer be tolerated and anybody using their slang, insulting others with despicable terms like mudblood and blood traitor, will be in very hot water.

"In accordance with the other teachers, I am now telling you what exactly will happen, should we find out that one of you used those words or bullied somebody because of a ridiculous idea as blood supremacy. Something like that doesn't exist. There is absolutely no proof that any blood status holds more power than the other. Any first offence against this will lead to one week of detention in combination with the loss of fifty house points. And the detention won't be a soft option like in the past. The second offence is suspension for a week and one month of detention with a hundred points being taken. If you should be so stupid to test our patience a third time, you're out of here permanently. You'll be expelled. The mentality that stands behind using insults like that, is what caused this war and the one in the seventies. Thousands of people were lost on both sides, costing our community many families.

"The hourglasses showing the ranking of the houses in the house cup have been reset to zero each. We will have a completely fresh start from here on. As there have been massive discrepancies in the giving and taking of points in the past, the teachers also have set up a new system of how points are given or taken. For this to be explained, I ask the new headboy and headgirl to me now please," McGonagall said and Harry and Hermione stood up from their seat, knowing what the headmistress wanted to say already.

McGonagall summoned a number of sheets from behind the head table and then banished them all over the house tables, making sure that all students had a paper for two of them.

"On these papers are the guidelines how points are going to be given or taken. There have been some changes. For one, regularly occurring things, like getting spell in class first, or giving a correct answer to questions asked, have got standardised points. This way one teacher won't decide on other numbers than his colleague. Similar procedure will be taken with point deductions. The prefects only have authority to take five points for a found misbehaviour. They can't give detentions anymore. In case a prefect finds a student severely going against the rules, the student will be taken to a teacher to decide on further punishment.

"The list with what counts as severe rule breaking has been handed out to the prefects. Now the headboy and headgirl have more authority. They can take points up to ten at a time and they can set detention. You can go to your head of house if you think a detention was given unfairly, but be warned, if you think that this is a soft option, if you're lying, and we will test for that, you'll get double the detention that has been set before. So think twice about accusing these two of lying about your misbehaviour.

"We can easily prove anything with just seeing a memory in a pensieve. There are charms that can verify an entered memory, so there is no chance to cheat and lie. We have let discipline around the school slip before this painful period happened and I won't repeat the mistakes of the past."

She left that statement hang in the air for a while to make the students realise how serious she was about this.

"On a nicer note, we found new teachers for our vacancies and will be able to start classes again tomorrow. Some of you might remember him, returning as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is Professor Lupin," she said and those in fifth year and up applauded loudly, "Now, many of you know that Professor Lupin has lycanthropy. As he is staying at home each night, as his wife is pregnant and expecting her first child around March next year, there is absolutely no danger to anybody. I want to make it abundantly clear that it won't be tolerated to harass Professor Lupin about his disease.

"He's taking wolfsbane potion that allows him to keep his mind on the nights of the full moon. When I went over the exam results of all Defence teachers in the past ten years, Professor Lupin has by far the best quota of O's achieved in OWLs and NEWTs," She pointed out sternly and most students that might have protested quivered under that glare.

"The next new appointment is Professor Clearwater, who is taking over Muggle Studies. Professor Clearwater is muggleborn, and therefore knows exactly what she's talking about. We have agreed to make Muggle Studies a mandatory class for the first two years, as there have been more and more reports from the Obliviators prior to the hostile takeover of the Ministry of Magic, about wizards not managing to blend in with the muggles. We can stop those problems easily by letting all of you learn the basics. And to counter what rubbish Alecto Carrow taught about muggles, the other years will also take the class until the end of the school year next summer. After that it will be an elective from third year up again," Professor McGonagall pointed out and some polite applause greeted Percy Weasley's ex-girlfriend.

"The next concerning subject was History of Magic. I'm pleased to inform you that Professor Binns has agreed to retire and pass on. For History we now have Professor Irving teaching," Professor McGonagall said and the students applauded again, "Professor Irving will also hold two weekend courses about the terror of the Death Eaters for all students in sixth and seventh year. Those courses are mandatory. Not knowing the past led to many students falling prey to the lure of power, which in the end cost them their magic. If two weekend courses can prevent that ideologies of blind followership of a murdering maniac can even save one student from it happening again, it will have succeeded."

Then she motioned Harry to step forward. He nodded and got ready to tell the students a few things.

"As I know that you're all tired and full of food, I'll make this short. I spent four months on the run from Death Eaters and Tom Riddle, better known as Lord Voldemort, because people let corruption spread into every part of the Ministry, the press and the largest businesses. I was the top target of them, because Riddle feared that I was the only one that could kill him, thanks to a prophecy that was made before I was even born. In the end that was complete nonsense. I didn't do anything special. What I did though was asking people that knew more than I did for help. Bill and Fleur Weasley gave Hermione and me the key to the defeat of Riddle. He had mutilated his soul and hidden away his anchors. I won't tell you how to make them, only that it was the biggest mistake he could make.

"I learned that if you split your soul, you opened yourself for attack if an opponent ever got to your soul piece that you had hidden away. I used a fairly simply ritual to call all parts of his soul back together, including the part that was in his main body, that he had created with a dark ritual at the end of my fourth year, forcefully taking my blood for it. Riddle was so afraid of death that he decided to not only mutilate his soul once, but he wanted to have seven pieces of his soul, the most powerful magical number. As soon as Bill and Fleur knew what he had done, they told me how to beat him. It was that easy. We had already found one of the containers. We extracted the soul piece and trapped it in a special amulet. From there on I only had to call all pieces back together, as I had the largest magical reserves. But anybody can perform the ritual.

"Professor McGonagall was the one to finally end the regime of terror that Riddle had created. She used her position at the school to have the magic of the soul trapped in the amulet be drained and added to the wards of Hogwarts. A side effect of that was that all Death Eaters lost their magic, as they were bound to Riddle's magic through their dark marks, the mark that proved that they had tortured and killed innocents," Harry said with a hard and cutting voice, "Proper investigation has shown that the imperius curse defence that was really popular after the first fall of Riddle, was nothing but a sly trick of those that had enough money to bribe the right people. It will never work again.

"The now squib Death Eaters are arrested and awaiting trial. The loss of their magic doesn't absolve them from paying for their crimes. It just makes it easier for us to ensure that they can't do something like that again. But the past one and half years, where Riddle and his followers were allowed to run amok, the terror that those that were here in the year 1992/93 experienced, when the Chamber of Secrets was opened, could have been prevented if we had just made sure to not let criminals walk away with a slap on the hand. I'll make sure that it doesn't happen again. And I'll see to it that there won't be a repeat performance of another dark lord rising from the ashes of the one we just got rid of.

"It is time to face the unpleasant past and not play ostrich. Trying to ignore things won't solve problems. It will hurt, it will be embarrassing, and it will reveal unpleasant secrets. It will also take years to bring everything out into the open. But we're doomed if we don't make a cut here and now and do the work to make our world into a place where we can feel safe and where it is pleasant to live. Where the rights of the individual are protected, including that the press can't print blatant lies and propaganda. You all are going to go out into the new world and I want you to ask yourselves, what kind of world do you want? What do you want to be in the future? Now we all have the chance to lay the foundation for it. So, no complaining about having to take more history lessons, we got into this situation because the generation before us refused to face facts. No more, I say! Think about my words, thank you," Harry ended his speech and was greeted with loud applause and standing ovations.

The best reward was the kiss from Hermione thought. And he couldn't care less about the cat-calls. He loved her and he wouldn't let this wonderful girl go again. And he had an idea that he needed to talk about with his account manager at Gringotts.

* * *

><p>Harry and Hermione were really busy during the twelve days that were the period until the Christmas break would start and all students would return to their families. There wouldn't be any staying at Hogwarts. Even those that had lost their families in the war, were going to relatives or friends. Everybody here needed to have a Christmas among their loved ones. The war and the takeover of their world by the dark had taken its toll and many needed to pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives.<p>

The first morning, during the scheduled History of Magic lesson for the first-years, Harry and Hermione led the new firsties around the school to help them find their classrooms easier. Some older students also joined, as the tour included other important places as well, and the Carrows had forbidden any kind of exploring of the students. It was classes in the classrooms or the greenhouses, meals in the Great Hall, studying in the Great Hall during fixed study hours, or staying in the common rooms. Except you belonged to a select group that the Carrows used to keep control over the school. The junior Death Eaters. They had even put the books needed for homework research onto a small bookshelf and other books weren't allowed to be used. More of their brainwashing.

So many students didn't know their way around the school very well. They were grateful to now have the chance to learn where certain locations were. The Ravenclaw firsties had stars in their eyes, laying eyes on the great library for the first time. Sure, they had their own private one in Ravenclaw Tower, but this one was so much more impressive. The tour took about one and a half hours and Harry and Hermione told them that they could come and ask them if they had problems if their prefects couldn't help, or they needed the help of the headboy or headgirl specifically.

It would be a long way for everybody to recover.

* * *

><p>When the Hogwarts Express reached London, Harry and Hermione oversaw the prefects and made sure that no luggage was forgotten on the train before leaving it themselves. Harry had convinced Hermione to come with him over the holidays and told her that he had prepared a surprise. But he wouldn't tell her what the surprise was. When the other students had been greeted by their families and left, he took Hermione's hand and side-along apparated her to the mansion, which he still kept under the fidelius charm. It was simply a useful precaution, now that the press was hounding him again.<p>

He gave Hermione a bright grin and led her into the house when she looked at him in confusion.

"Okay, Harry, I have been really patient, but I really want to know what kind of surprise you have," she said, "We could have as well stayed at Hogwarts, as the time is too short to go and search for my parents before we have to be back at school."

"I know, but I had a great idea and for this idea to fully work out, you had to come with me over the holidays," Harry replied grinning.

"What kind of idea?" She asked.

"Come with me into the lounge and you'll see," Harry told her.

Hermione nodded and followed him. Before she could open the door, he stopped her and put a blindfold around her eyes.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed exasperated.

"Come on, let me do it this way," Harry pleaded and she huffed, but nodded.

Harry opened the door and gently led Hermione inside, positioning her with look onto two people that had a bright smile on their faces.

"Okay, Hermione, you can take the blindfold off," Harry said and she did so, looking shell shocked at the two people lounging in the armchairs.

"Mum, Dad!" She cried out and shot forward into the waiting arms of her mother, "How is this possible? I'm so sorry. I should never have obliviated you. I wasn't thinking straight and was under potions. I'm so sorry, can you forgive me?" She rushed out.

"Breathe, darling," Monica Granger chuckled, "We know already. Your boyfriend wrote us a very informative letter, which was given to us by a Gringotts employee in Australia. He explained everything that had happened and how you were drugged and manipulated by people that you thought you could trust. It explained a lot of things that we had noticed, but which we could never really discuss with you, as you became distant from us. I'm really happy that you're back to yourself."

"Harry, I wish to thank you for everything you've done for us. Not only did you protect our daughter from falling into the hands of a boy who would use love potions to force her into a relationship, but also stopped her from going away from us forever," Wendell Granger addressed Harry.

"It was my pleasure. I knew that Hermione was close to you two and I didn't want her to lose her parents. I know how hard it is to not have parents," Harry replied.

Hermione, once she had hugged her father, went over to her boyfriend and kissed him passionately for as long as they had breath.

"Thank you so much, Harry, this is the best Christmas present ever!" Hermione brought out after ending the kiss.

"It was my pleasure," Harry told her sincerely.

"How did you manage to have Gringotts find them?" Hermione asked.

"That wasn't too difficult. Thanks to Bill's report, I'm on the good side of the goblins. It didn't hurt that I inherited a lot of gold by default thanks to the draining of the magic of the Death Eaters. Sirius once told me that all the pureblood families are somehow related. Well, that was especially true for the Blacks. And thanks to my grandmother being born a Black, I was the one next in line to get some of the largest fortunes in our world, which shocked me massively when I got the owl from Gringotts. But the Malfoys, Lestranges, Rosiers, Selwyns, Rowles and Averys were all related to the Blacks. And I'm the only remaining heir. Though I fully intend to set up a very large vault for Andromeda, Ted, Remus and Tonks. Andromeda was the sister of Bellatrix and Narcissa and deserves to get her inheritance. And with Tonks and Remus expecting a baby next year, they need all the money they can get," Harry declared.

"But how would you inherit? I mean, I understand the Black fortune itself, as Sirius was your godfather, but the others? They were only married to daughters of the Blacks," Hermione asked surprised.

"No remaining heirs. I did a bit of research and found out that many pureblood families were completely marked by Riddle. They died out in the male line. In case that happens, the goblins trace the lines back and the spouses' families are considered. Though disinherited members are skipped. And my grandmother Dorea was one of the few Blacks that wasn't blasted from the family tree. After all, she married a pureblood wizard from a powerful family. It didn't matter that her son fought against the pureblood ideals and married a muggleborn. It wasn't blamed on her. Otherwise Sirius' mother would have had to blast herself off too. She had done her duty to the House of Black. And Walburga Black was too busy with her disgrace of a son to care for Dorea Potter.

"Now, when all those Death Eaters lost their magic, they also lost claim to the family fortunes. A squib, if they were lucky to survive, isn't fit to inherit anything. Not to mention that the trials sent all Death Eaters to prison for life, also taking them out of the line of inheritance. There won't be any more heirs coming from them in the future. Which is why the goblins looked for available heirs. In those cases where underage children remain, the fortunes are frozen and will be passed on once they turn seventeen. A trust fund manager will take care that tuition for school and a stipend for living expenses are paid, but the main part will not be accessible before they come of age.

"The Blacks were numerous some generations ago and the connection gave me the right to claim the gold. I plan to use a good part of the gold to help with the rebuilding and have some be used for progressive new businesses that need start-up loans, like I did for Fred and George. We have a great chance now that the worst bigots are out of the picture. And I want to direct our world in the right direction without totally controlling things," Harry explained.

"That's a great idea, Harry," Hermione beamed.

"Yes, well thought out," Wendell complimented.

"You still didn't explain how you had my parents found so quickly and got them back here for Christmas," Hermione reminded him.

"True. I asked the goblins if they had a branch in Australia, which they confirmed. I explained to them how you sent your parents away to be safe from the war and how I wanted to surprise you for Christmas with them being here. I got a discount for the job. They simply had some experts on muggle communication ways look up if there were any new couples that had arrived within the past six months, called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, who had got a house and registered for the phone books. It only took four days to be sure that they were the ones I was looking for and an expert on mind magic undid the obliviations, as you had created them with the intention to be easily able to undo them.

"I have arranged for a portkey for them to take them back to England if they wanted to. They did and here they are," Harry told the story.

Hermione kissed him again. She was incredibly happy.

* * *

><p>Christmas with the Grangers was better than Harry could ever have imagined. Not only was Hermione deliriously happy to have her parents back, but the elder Grangers readily accepted him as Hermione's boyfriend and included him in their Christmas rituals. He had a lot of fun baking biscuits with Hermione and Monica, as she insisted he called her, went out to get a good Christmas tree with Wendell and Hermione and sang Christmas carols with them all. They all went shopping in Bristol, as they wanted to avoid the traffic in London and not risk being noticed by some witches and wizards. With Diagon Alley being there and the Ministry knowing about Grimmauld Place belonging to Harry, they were better off not going anywhere near wizarding hot spots.<p>

They wanted to have a peaceful Christmas. Harry asked to make dinner for Christmas, which Monica agreed to, as long as he let her make her special Christmas cake. It was the one exception to looking out for the sugar intake in food with the two dentists during the year. Even if you had to brush your teeth after eating the cake. Hermione told him that that also was a tradition. Harry prepared a honeyed roast with small potato fritters, potatoes au gratin, buttered peas, broccoli, sauce hollandaise, spicy gravy and he got two bottles of wine, which he had asked Wendell to recommend.

Together with the delicious Christmas cake, all four ate much more than they should have done, but it was too good to not do. They decided that a walk, one hour after eating the cake, would do them all good and they went to the promenade that oversaw the beach. While it was cold and a light wind came from the sea, they all loved the sight of the beach, only illuminated by some lanterns here and there with the moon being half full above them in a clear sky.

That night Hermione decided that she wanted to sleep in Harry's room and he happily let her. They didn't do more than cuddling, some exploring and kissing. They wanted to take the physical side of their relationship slowly. They were happy that they now could do that.

* * *

><p>Christmas at the Burrow wasn't as happy as the one Harry and the Grangers had. While all Weasleys had come together for Christmas dinner, there was a lot of tension in the air, with Molly not having fully accepted that her actions were the reason why her family was like this. While she had started going to sessions with the mind healers again, they didn't have the time to do a session each week right now, so she only had the dates set for a one month long stay at a closed ward in February next year. Everybody looked out if there was any kind of potion in their food or drinks.<p>

It killed the exuberant mood that normally belonged to a Weasley Christmas. Sometimes Molly would grumble about not being in the wrong, but all the other Weasleys, with exception of Ron, who was just that thick-headed, quickly shut her up. She was in an especially bad mood, as Harry had sent the jumper and fudge she had sent him back. With a letter that he didn't want to take anything from her ever again, after what she had done to him and Hermione. Ron had ranted for Harry hurting his Mum, but Arthur had harshly reigned him in again. Right now he was acting like the head of house that he was and didn't let Molly get away with anything.

He had confiscated all her cauldrons that weren't used for cooking, had had the twins double check the whole house for potion ingredients, including the gardens, had Bill set up wards that would alarm him if Molly was attempting to get to the stock of potions they kept in the house and Percy had left reading material about mind healing that he had got through his connections. Molly didn't like it at all, but Arthur was consequent this time. He didn't want the catastrophe that had been prevented in Bill's seventh year come to pass now that emotions were still running high. The public would eat them alive should anything about the attempts to potion the heroes of the war be found out.

* * *

><p>Ron Weasley was really angry. He didn't like the new situation he found himself in at all. Why would it matter how he got Hermione? He had a right to her. He had shown that he wanted her and, in his mind, that was enough to make her his by right. He should have more fame for his role in the fall of You-Know-Who, but did he get it? No, Hermione, Harry, Bill, Fleur and Professor McGonagall were the heroes that everybody talked about. Sure, the Weasley family overall got more respect now, as everybody knew they had fought against the Death Eaters all the time, but he didn't get the personal fame he wanted and thought he deserved.<p>

No, Harry got it, again. It was always Harry. He was rich, he now had the girl Ron wanted, when he could have had any other girl, he was famous and everybody openly admired him. Ron wanted that so badly. But because the horcrux had messed around with his head, he wasn't there when the deciding part of the war happened. Oh yes, he was part of the force that took the Ministry back, but he was one of many. Sure, people knew his name and greeted him for being a Weasley, but they didn't admire him personally.

Ron didn't notice that his older brothers and father were already making plans to also send Ron to a mind healer in the new year when things had calmed down a bit and he was done with school. He was certainly the one who had eaten up their mother's ideas and opinions the most. Well, she had had two years where she had been alone with him and Ginny at the Burrow while the older ones were at Hogwarts or working already and one year to fully concentrate on Ginny.

* * *

><p>Harry had asked Wendell to talk about an important thing while Hermione and Monica were headed to a beauty day for just the two of them. As Wendell and Monica didn't plan to start working again before the summer, using the 'sabbatical' Hermione had arranged for them in the way it was meant to be, the young dentist that ran their practice only got a visit where they told him that they were enjoying their free time and that they would probably return in August. It gave the young man a good timeline and them some much needed down time. They planned to travel to the US while Harry and Hermione were at Hogwarts and visit all the places that they found fascinating, but hadn't had the time to really discover.<p>

Now both men were sitting in the lounge, a bottle of beer in their hands.

"So, Harry, what did you want to talk about?" Wendell asked, deciding to get to the point.

"I have been thinking a lot about how great things have been going, ever since Hermione and I go rid of Ron. The time that we were working together to find the horcruxes and she was herself again, it was incredible. I have liked Hermione for a while. I was always impressed by her sharp mind and her ability to put clues together. I missed that in our fifth and sixth years at Hogwarts, mainly the sixth though, and during the time Ron was still with us on the hunt. Before that Hermione would always have had my back. I could always count on her standing by my side, no matter what happened.

"And it was her idea to come to this house and use it as our new base. Ever since we came here, I got to experience how it would be to live together with Hermione. I love the idea. We actually had the time to talk seriously, while still having fun at times, when we didn't do work for our NEWTs or the hunt. I never got to see many movies, but she made us see lots of them, from James Bond to Independence Day. I missed out on a lot growing up with relatives that couldn't stand my presence. I know that I like this house as well. It is perfect if you keep the need to have a safe place away from the wizarding world in mind.

"I set up the fidelius charm to protect Hermione and me from Death Eaters, but it also keeps rabid fans out. And nobody can make the connection to me and Hermione, as they have no idea how to navigate in the muggle world. I would love to go wild in the garden and form it to my ideas. I had to do all the garden work at Privet Drive, as my aunt couldn't be bothered, but, like cooking, I actually like gardening if I can do things my way," Harry tried explaining.

Wendell nodded, waiting for the younger man to get to the point where this was going.

"Hermione told me that the house was planned to be sold after the renovations were done. She also told me that her uncle didn't expect the money before next summer. I would like to know how much you exactly want for the house. I'm really interested in buying it. And if things between Hermione and me work out like I hope they do, I might have a ready-made place to one day raise my children."

"Well, I have no problem to seriously consider your offer," Wendell said, "If you were anybody else, I would give you a long-winded speech about treating my daughter right, but you have saved her life so many times over the years and she yours, that it would be ridiculous. I can also see that you have a very special bond. I would say your chances for this being the one love that lasts until you're old and wrinkly are very good. My brother-in-law told me that I have some leeway in how much to ask for the house and the surrounding grounds. I would say, if you keep the furniture at least for now, you'd be good with four hundred twenty thousand pounds. I can argue for a family discount."

Harry quickly did the maths.

"So I would have to ask Gringotts to transfer about eight thousand four hundred galleons. They can transfer money to muggle banks, I already asked about that when I went there to see to the vaults I inherited by default," Harry pondered.

"You don't seem to think it would be too much to pay," Wendell stated.

"No, I don't. While I never had any money growing up, and I didn't know how wealthy the Potters really were before I finally got a complete statement for my accounts, I know that the house is worth it. It would work perfectly for both Hermione and me, as we both grew up in the muggle world and are out of our comfort zone in a completely magical house. Here we can have the biggest advantages of magic while still having all the devices that are simply better in the muggle world than in the wizarding world. We also will have our privacy, which means a lot to me. I hate it if there are nosy neighbours that gossip about everyone and everything. There aren't any neighbours here for three kilometres.

"And once we have children, which I really want in some years, there would be enough space for them to play, learn to fly a broom safely, perhaps even play a little Quidditch," Harry smiled happily at the images in his mind, "And honestly, all the money is better spent getting a house that we both already like than sitting in a vault and collecting dust. I have many times that amount, even if I set up really generous vaults for the Tonks and Lupins."

Wendell nodded.

"I'll have a solicitor draw up a notarial sales contract in January. We can then discuss the clauses you want to have in it in detail. I think we can go with a simple version. The house is newly renovated and an official did the acceptance of work back in September. So you should be spared large additional costs in the near future. And if I understood it right, even those wouldn't pose a problem for you," Wendell commented.

"No, they wouldn't, but that the house is finished is a major point in its favour. Thank you," Harry replied honestly, "Could you keep it secret from Hermione until I tell her? I want to surprise her."

"I can do that," Wendell agreed.


	8. Future

**Hi, this is the last full chapter of this Story. I decided to make the 'Portrait Scene' into an omake, which will be the last chapter. Thanks for the numerous reviews. I'm really happy about all the Feedback. Now enjoy.**

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><p><strong>Future<strong>

At the end of January Harry apparated to the solicitor's office and signed the notarial sales contract for the house in Littlehampton. He then went to Gringotts with the account information of Hermione's uncle and had them transfer eight thousand four hundred galleons or four hundred twenty thousand pounds. He really thought it one of his best investments so far. He didn't tell anybody about it, but he fully planned to have a big housewarming party during the Easter break with those people that he was truly close to. Those that could be trusted with the secret of the Fidelius charm.

He also planned to get started on the garden over the Easter break and had got some gardening magazines in secret to get some ideas. With the help of magic nothing was too difficult to arrange. And he had already decided to not move into Grimmauld Place. The house held too many bad memories for him, especially seeing how Sirius had hated being kept prisoner there. He had told Kreacher, who had returned to the house, that he wanted him to renovate the house taking his time, as long as he got it ready by the start of summer. He planned to give Tonks and Remus the option to take over the house.

He knew that with his salary as a teacher Remus was better off than before, but with the baby soon coming, Tonks wouldn't be back to work for a few years at least. They could use a place to live that they didn't have to pay for. As Tonks was a Black descendant, and on top had the rare gift of being a metamorphmagus, a famed ability of the Blacks in history, Kreacher could probably be convinced to listen to her. And by spinning the story the way that Harry wanted to protect his distant cousins in a house where he knew they would be safe, he could get the old elf to not constantly insult Remus. And Remus had a much more even temper than Sirius had had. And there wasn't as much bad blood between him and the elf. He knew that the baby wouldn't be a werewolf, as Remus would have to be transformed to pass on that curse, so Kreacher would not be too bad.

And Harry fully planned to let him clean his new house regularly, so that he wouldn't be around the others all the time. Dobby had also asked if he could come to work for Harry, as after Snape had become headmaster, he had been looking for work again. It wasn't safe for him at Hogwarts anymore. Harry had agreed and Dobby was deliriously happy. Kreacher was old after all and he would need to rest sometime in the near future. Having Dobby to assist him and take over the full work once he couldn't work anymore, would work out best for all involved. And as he paid Dobby, Hermione couldn't kill him for taking Dobby as his elf.

* * *

><p>Hermione expressed her happiness about the purchase of the house in a very appreciative way. It was the night of Valentine's Day and, as the headboy and headgirl had a private suite for themselves, they used it to make love for the first time. They had been getting closer to this for months now and it was great for both of them.<p>

They had noticed how Ron was glaring at them all the time, but at least Ginny had resignedly accepted their relationship. Her medical treatment by the mind healer was going well, while Ron's didn't. He didn't want to see anything wrong with his opinions and ideas, and he was really stubborn. Thankfully he had to study a lot, thanks to his father's orders, and the information from the Ministry that, while they took anybody no matter what blood status or wealth they had, the applicants had to have the proper qualifications.

It made a lot of sense to everybody, except for pureblood bigots who had never had to work for their positions and simply got them by family connections. Ron didn't like that if he wanted to be an auror, he needed the NEWTs in Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts. And thanks to Harry holding full try-outs for the Quidditch team, he had lost his keeper spot to a second year, Michael Wood, who coincidentally was the younger cousin of Oliver Wood and loved Quidditch as much as him. Ron had ranted about the injustice of Harry being headboy and Quidditch captain, but Professor McGonagall had been firm in her decisions.

Harry had been captain the year before and done a good job and he had more than deserved the headboy position, after having been denied the rightful prefect position the years before, as Dumbledore had decided to meddle with the decisions of the head of Gryffindor. It was normally a sign that he didn't trust the decisions of the head of house, but somehow he had managed to make the argument sound somewhat reasonable, with Umbridge being slated to teach DADA and the whole pressure of the war not wanting to add to Harry's burden. It had been part of the reason why Harry had got the Quidditch Captaincy the next year over Katie Bell. Professor McGonagall had wanted to make it up at least a bit to Harry.

Their classes were also going the way they wanted them to. Harry now didn't hold anything back and with Hermione's reward system of snogging him for doing great, his grades had shot up all over the place. Now he didn't just have an O in DADA, he also had one in Charms and Transfiguration and was very close to one in Potions. Hermione was finally willing to go over the recipes in Snape's old Potions book, with the comment that while he had been an evil bastard, he at least knew his potions. Not to mention that his mother had been a genius in Potions as well and had probably taught him her tricks before he even started at Hogwarts. So she could expect that his modifications were safe.

While working through the recipes, Harry and Hermione also discussed why a modification worked better than the original recipe and put together their own notebooks. Hermione had suggested to publish a series of books about how to get better grades in Potions, as the class was horribly unsatisfyingly known to most people, thanks to over a decade of bad teaching. Harry fully supported her in that and offered to co-author the books. He decided to have some beginner books that would give the ones starting out brewing the instructions of what to do and not to do, in easily understandable chapters. He remembered too well how he struggled because nobody properly explained things to him. Other books for more advanced brewers could entail the improved recipes and the reasons why certain things worked out better than others.

It was a project that they started with at school and planned to continue after graduation.

* * *

><p>Harry looked over the buffet he had prepared for the guests. He and Hermione had decided that they would go with this way, as it was easiest and everybody could simply take what he wanted to eat. They had invited about twenty people for the house warming party. The Lupins were coming, including baby Teddy, whom Harry had been asked to be godfather of, which he had accepted honoured, especially as that meant that Remus had forgiven him his harsh words, which Remus acknowledged he had needed to wake up to the massive mistake he had been about to make, just because of his insecurities. Thankfully Tonks hadn't been too mad at him, but really grateful to Harry.<p>

Among the Weasleys, Bill, Fleur, Fred and George had been invited, with the twins having to promise not to prank any of the guests, but they could show their ingenuity with a private firework, as long as the muggles didn't see it. Then Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were on the list, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell, Neville and Luna, Hermione's parents and Andromeda and Ted Tonks.

Those were the people that the two would trust with keeping their secret, even if they for now couldn't tell it to anybody. One day they would undo the fidelius charm and only put other charms to make it impossible to find them with magical location means up, but that was one or two years into the future. For now safety was still a large aspect in their planning and privacy was right next to it.

"This looks amazing, Harry," Hermione complimented the work of her boyfriend.

"Thank you, dear," Harry replied smiling at her in the dress she had chosen for the party.

It was a simple long-sleeved dress, as it was still too cold for lighter clothes, but the dark blue dress hugged Hermione's body in all the right places and gave his mind very exciting ideas.

"Down, tiger," she quipped grinning, noticing his reaction, "First the party, then the private celebration."

"No fair," he mock protested and pulled her into a long and passionate kiss.

"You would just skip the whole party, if I let you follow through with that," Hermione said knowingly.

"Probably," Harry admitted sighing, "but I just can't help myself. You're so beautiful and I finally have you as my girlfriend, and I simply can't help myself desiring you all the time."

He kissed down her neck, which made her moan in happiness.

"Later, I promise, the wait will be worth it," Hermione finally told him seductively.

Then the bell rang and Harry just stole one last kiss from Hermione and then went to get the door.

The first ones to arrive were the Tonks and the Lupins. Baby Teddy was sleeping in his mother's arms, while his father was carrying the bag with all things needed for him.

"Hi, good to see you all, come in," Harry greeted them.

"Wotcher, Harry. Really nice place you have here," Tonks stated impressed.

"Thank you, Tonks," Harry replied smiling, "Did Teddy grow again since I last saw him?"

"Yes, I think about four centimetres. After all, it was over a month ago since you saw him," Remus confirmed.

"I really can't believe how fast he grows," Harry admitted.

"I couldn't either, but from what my healer says, it's completely normal and a metamorphmagus can grow even faster during the first three months," Tonks explained.

Harry just nodded, taking her at her word. Then he looked at Ted and Andromeda.

"We wish you the best for your new home, Harry," Ted said and handed over a basket with some presents, "This is from all of us."

"Thank you, Ted," Harry said and took the basket.

There was some of Honeydukes' best chocolate, a bottle of wine and something wrapped in green wrapping paper. Dobby appeared next to Harry, wearing a smart-looking uniform and took the basket from him.

"Dobby will put nice basket to the table reserved for prezzies, Master Harry," Dobby said.

"Thank you, Dobby," Harry nodded and Dobby popped away with the basket.

"So you hired a new elf?" Remus asked.

"Yes," Harry confirmed, "Dobby is the elf that I tricked Lucius Malfoy into freeing and ever since he has worshipped me. When Snape became headmaster, he couldn't continue working at Hogwarts anymore and he said that he was at the Hog's Head for a while, helping Dumbledore's younger brother running the pub, as Aberforth didn't mind hiring a free elf. When Riddle and most Death Eaters died, he asked me if I needed a house elf and I took him on. Kreacher is already old after all and sometime in the future he'll have to retire. Having an elf that knows his way around and is totally reliable is only a benefit then. And Dobby helped me a lot over the years, so I'm happy to have him around."

The four adults nodded smiling and followed Harry into the lounge, where Hermione was waiting to greet them. They would wait showing them all the way to the dining room where the buffet was set up, next to some tables to sit and eat comfortably, until everybody was present.

"Hey, Hermione," Tonks greeted and Hermione came over smiling.

"Hi, Tonks, you're looking well. Oh, Teddy is so cute," she gushed over the baby.

"He is. I'm so proud that he's a metamorphmagus like me," Tonks said proudly and showed off her tiny son.

"I can imagine," Hermione replied and continued cooing over the sleeping baby.

Harry meanwhile was on his way to the door again to let the next guests in. The Weasleys arrived at the same time as Harry's old Quidditch teammates and soon everybody was present. Dobby was happy to put many presents onto the designated table. Harry and Hermione had decided to not give a grand speech, but to simply show everybody around and then open the buffet and enjoy the evening. Dobby had everything under control and would keep food and drinks stocked all evening.

"Okay, I guess you're all curious how the house looks like, so Hermione and I would like to show you around a bit. I just ask you to not step onto the ground in the garden outside the paths, I have just sowed grass seeds and that wouldn't be good for them," Harry said.

Neville nodded along with that statement, being the top plant brain of them all. The tour of the house and garden took about an hour and then everybody was ready to eat and drink something.

"Now that we're done, please follow me into the dining room, the buffet there should be exactly the right thing for us now. You're free to eat and drink as much as you wish, just prevent overdoing it on the alcoholic drinks to the point of being sick," Harry told them and some laughed at that.

Soon some groups built around the round tables that had been set up to eat and everybody told stories, made jokes or talked about plans for the future. The twins were ecstatic about the idea of turning muggle inventions to work with magic and introducing them to the wizarding world through their shop. They promised to help with that and that they could talk numbers once they were ready to get started. The idea about the Potions book series was taken well by them all, especially Neville and Andromeda, who commented that something like that was long overdue, as the way the class had been taught in the past was abysmal.

While Slughorn was way better than Snape, he would soon retire again and there weren't that many Potions Masters that were willing to teach at a school. Having a book series that took care of the basics and gave proper explanations why certain things worked or didn't work, would make the work for any teacher much easier.

Overall the evening was a lot of fun. Harry and Hermione got a lot of teasing and questions when they would take the last step, but they, so far, kept silent about that.

* * *

><p>Time flew until the end of year exams were upon Hogwarts again. There had been some unrest among the students, what with some children of now dead or squib Death Eaters holding a slight grudge, but which was stamped out as soon as they acted out against those that they felt were at fault for their worse situations in life. Most of the students simply wanted to enjoy the peace that had been won. They went to Hogsmeade with their friends, studied for tests, complained about long essays that they had to write and chased after one crush or another.<p>

It was normal time at school without any crazy events taking place for once. But then again, the start of the year had been horrible enough for everybody to not want anything bad to happen again. The teachers were much more active against students breaking the rules and bullying. While for small scale rule breaking detentions and point deductions took place, for bullying and massive rule breaking harsher measures were taken. Nobody wanted to risk anything. They had seen where that attitude had led to and the idea of a repeat of the short reign of terror that Voldemort had started made them act for once.

Harry and Hermione did their duties as the student head duo while still finding lots of time to enjoy their relationship. They were always walking through the corridors holding hands, stealing kisses when they had the chance and simply basking in the other's company. By now they had tentatively allowed Ginny to join them for study time in the library, but nothing more. They could see that she was really sorry for having attempted to use the love potion on Harry, as she hadn't known about the consequences it could have had and that it was wrong to do that.

With how her mother had always told her idiotic stories and basically brainwashed her to her way of thinking, Ginny needed some time to overcome the notions she had been taught. But at least she was willing to overcome her problems. She was regularly seeing the mind healers and taking what they told her in. That was actually the main reason why Hermione had agreed to let her study with them again. Ron meanwhile was a pain. He didn't want to accept that Hermione had chosen Harry and not him. He tried wooing her again, but he completely failed to make any kind of positive impression with her. And he was watched for use of any kind of potion against Harry and Hermione.

Not to mention that he wasn't good at potions and couldn't brew a potion that would help his goals at all. He also only barely managed to pass his classes, now that Hermione had withdrawn all her support from him. Without the much needed nagging from her to study more, not to mention assistance in understanding the lessons, he fell to at best A's in the five classes he took. Thanks to his laziness, he didn't do more than absolutely necessary to pass his classes, which was stupid when you considered that NEWTs were coming up.

Harry and Hermione continued their training with spells in the Room of Requirement and studied going by a schedule that Hermione had set up and which Harry regularly lightened by distracting Hermione by snogging and cuddling with her. Not that she complained. She liked that part as much as he did.

* * *

><p>Finally the exams were to be taken and like in their fifth year, the Great Hall was emptied of all house tables and single tables were placed there for the seventh years to take their NEWT tests. Harry wondered why they didn't put the fifth and seventh-years together for the written part, as it would have saved them a lot of time, but there probably was a reason for it. The fifth-years had to take their tests at half past eight in the morning and the seventh-years at eleven. That gave both years two hours for the written tests. They each had two full hours to complete the test and then they would be sent out of the Great Hall, be it to change the setting for the next age group or to quickly set things up for lunch, which was limited to half an hour for the days of the OWLs and NEWTs, with fruit bowls appearing in the common rooms to tide those that didn't make it for meal times, thanks to studying mostly, over until dinner.<p>

Harry's first NEWT exam was Transfiguration and thanks to all the studying and practicing that he and Hermione had done while they were hunting horcruxes, not to mention his secret training the previous year, he easily got through the forty questions that made up the Transfiguration NEWT paper. It were ten questions more than there had been in his OWLs, he noticed. But things like: 'Describe the model behind the vanishing of mammals', were really easy for him now. His quill flew over the parchment and he finished his work with ten minutes to spare. He read over his answers one more time, corrected one spelling error and then watched how his test was summoned by Professor Flitwick in front of the whole group.

In the afternoon he had, among others, to show vanishing a parrot, turning a rabbit into bunny slippers, conjuring a wooden bench with points being given for how intricate he made it and he finally was asked to conjure a set of fine robes suited for an official function. Harry managed to do each of those tasks perfectly and was sent out with a content nod from the examiner. Harry was especially happy that all spells had been performed silently and with minimal wand movements.

When he exited from the Great Hall, Hermione was upon him immediately and asked him how it had gone, as she had finished before him. He told her about the things he had had to do and how he had a really good feeling about this.

* * *

><p>The pattern continued and Harry found out why the exams were called nastily exhausting. You needed to perform a lot of magic and that took a lot out of you. He didn't want to think how much harder it had to be for Hermione, who was taking two subjects more than him. He just did his best to avoid that she stressed out too much, which thankfully could be achieved by giving her a shoulder massage or snogging once she was done with one repetition of a part of her notes, as she would be really cross with him, should he not let her revise at all.<p>

When two weeks were over and all OWLs and NEWTs done, the school seemed to take a relieved breath. Now they only had to get to the end of the year. Contrary to the OWLs, the NEWTs would be graded first by the Ministry examiners and they would get their graduation diplomas during a festive ceremony. And the second reason for the NEWTs to be graded faster was that the new graduates would need the diplomas to apply for jobs after school. Many jobs required a certain level of competency after all and only now that the NEWTs were finished, they could prove that they had the competency.

Still, a few already had their positions secured, with only a clause in their contracts that they had to prove the NEWTs required once they started. For example Neville had an apprenticeship with a Herbology Master lined up for him, which Professor Sprout had helped him get. Padma Patil would start working in her father's business and learn the ropes of leading an import business. The Patils imported Indian spices and tea, as well as rare plants among other things and sold them in Europe. Ernie Macmillan would start at an entry level position at the Department of International Magical Cooperation, which was much more important now than it had been when Percy Weasley had started there.

Thanks to the previous Minister's rule, there was a lot of broken china to mend with other countries and that needed skilled diplomats. Justin Finch-Fletchley would start at a new department that had been set up after the fall of the old bigoted regime, the Department of Muggle Cooperation. It was mainly about keeping better relations with the muggle side of the government in Great Britain and to establish working practices to ensure that magic stayed hidden from the common people. With technology advancing as it did, there was a real need for working procedures being implemented. After all, most wizards and witches had no idea how muggles lived and that could become dangerous in the future if nothing was done.

Harry and Hermione had already decided to not do anything related to looking for a job. They wanted to travel for a while, to make Harry's dreams of seeing more of the world come true. They had already discussed it with Hermione's parents and they were all for them expanding their horizons and seeing more of the world, as long as they made sure to avoid war zones. They could easily promise that. They had had enough war to last them for life.

* * *

><p>Minerva McGonagall looked at the graduates of this year with a mix of pride and sadness. It was normal for her by now, as every year students that had grown on her over seven years that they spent studying here at Hogwarts left to take on the world. Some she stayed in contact with, some not. It was simply how things were. But this year had been a special one. They had had to face more things than any other group of young witches and wizards. With their arrival at Hogwarts things changed. And many that should have been sitting among this group were lost forever to the magical world. Children that had, following the bad ideals of their parents, decided to follow a monster with delusions of grandeur and to believe in wrong ideas of the superiority of pure blood.<p>

They had lost their magic thanks to allowing Tom Riddle to mark them as his property. They were in prison to be punished for their crimes. It was such a waste of lives. But she would rather have those that were willing to harm their fellow people in prison or dead than those that only wanted to live in peace have to deal with the results of murderers being allowed to do what they wanted. Among the group of seventh-years in their traditional black graduation robes that also had the trim in the colours of their house, two were especially dear to her heart. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Though how much longer the latter would be a Granger and not a Potter she didn't want to place a bet on. It normally wouldn't be too long.

There was a deep love and trust that those two radiated whenever you looked at them. She was very grateful that they had decided to ask for help in the hunt for the horcruxes. She had given Albus' portrait a major tirade over irresponsibility and not sharing information in times of war. He had actually been shocked to find out that there had been such an easy way to deal with Voldemort once and for all and he could have known, had he just trusted Bill Weasley, as an expert on curses and dark magic, thanks to his job, with the knowledge after demanding an oath of silence from him. Harry refused to talk to his portrait. Hermione had told her she would 'talk' to it after the graduation ceremony was over with She knew it would be anything but talking. They hadn't forgiven him for the role he had played in the miserable life that Harry had led until Voldemort was dead. And his excuses were hollow. His secrets had nearly condemned them. Countless lives had been lost, because he kept information until it was nearly too late or already too late to use it properly. And to base the whole strategy of a war on a teenager's supposed power, was so ridiculous that Minerva bluntly told the portrait that if he was still alive, she would have forced him to get a mental evaluation for senility.

Needless to say that Albus Dumbledore's portrait was mostly silent whenever a student came into the headmistress's office for one thing or another.

Other student had also made their names known. Some positively, some negatively. Ron Weasley had only barely managed to pass his NEWTs, and he had failed Potions. Without Hermione and Harry helping him, he hadn't studied well enough to get the pass he needed, which meant he wouldn't have the option to go for auror training. Still, four NEWTs in Transfiguration, even if he only scrapped a pass by two points, Charms, a more solid A there, Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts, all normal A's, he at least would be able to apply for a normal job that would allow him to have a comfortable life. If his temper didn't get him in hot water with his future employer. That was always a risk with the red head.

Neville Longbottom had reached an O with honours in Herbology, E's in Charms and Defence and an A in his last NEWT of History of Magic, for which he hadn't taken the classes, but did self-study. Probably not that bad of an idea with how no student could actually stay awake in Cuthbert Binns' classes. It was a blessing that with Professor Irving they now could teach History in a much better way than before. Perhaps more students would go for the class at NEWT level in the future. This year Neville had been one of three to gain a NEWT there, the other two were Padma Patil and Anthony Goldstein in Ravenclaw.

Top student of the year was, how could it have been different after having that spot for six years already, Hermione Granger. Straight O's in her seven NEWTs. She was glad to see that Harry was only a little behind with five NEWTs with straight O's. Dating Hermione had done wonders for his study attitudes. She really wished all students the best for their lives, but those two deserved it even more than the others. Finally she was ready to give a few last words to the young men and women that looked at her expectantly.

"I'm pleased and honoured to have seen all of you grow from eleven years old children, unsure of what to expect during your seven years here at Hogwarts, into the fine young men and women that now sit before me. You didn't have an easy time in those seven years. Still, you got through the adversities that you were confronted with, be it the danger of the Chamber of Secrets being opened again after fifty years or dementors being stationed around our beloved Hogwarts for protection.

"You had to deal with paranoia of the now former Minister that wanted to deny the darkness that had returned to our world and which could have cost us much more than it already did. It already cost us too much, but the only way I can go on is by thinking that it could have been much worse, as thankfully the people that wanted to force us all under their rule of oppression, were stopped shortly after they could take over our government.

"You take from your seven years not only the knowledge you were taught in your classes, you also take experience of how bad things can turn out if good people let bad people get away with their behaviour. Here at Hogwarts we implemented a policy of not tolerating that anymore. We won't bow to terror and bigotry. We have survived the dark times, but we all are tasked to ensure that there won't be a repeat and that means staying vigilant. When you go out into the world, don't close your eyes to injustice and violence. Try to stop them when they are limited to small parts. If you notice it getting larger, call in back-up. We only barely escaped a terrible fate and I don't want to ever experience again that I'm powerless against people that would torture children for speaking their mind or simply not following their beliefs.

"You are the graduation class of 1998. I have seen great deeds done by many of you. Especially when our school was in the claws of Death Eaters, many of you stood for what was right and defended the younger students. I'm really proud of you. I want you to go out into the world to show them that you won't bow to pressure, I wish that you make things better than they are. You are privileged to be in a position where your actions can really change the world. Do it. Make our world better. Do all the little and big things that will see that change happen. I will do my part here at Hogwarts as headmistress. I hope to see many of you again and one day see your children go through this proud institution.

"Whatever you choose to do with your lives, be true to yourselves and don't forget the friends you found during your time here at Hogwarts. They will be the ones that will stand by you whatever happens. And with that I ask the first graduate to take her diploma. Hannah Abbot, Hufflepuff," McGonagall called out and Hannah rose from her seat next to Susan Bones, who was called up next.

The calling of all graduates was a repeat of the sorting of 1991, but everybody noticed the absence of a number of names. Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy for example didn't receive a mention or diploma. There were some others that had been withdrawn from the school before the graduation as well. But overall the year that had started in 1991 was a good one. There were many students that would make their mark on their world, that much Minerva McGonagall knew for sure.

* * *

><p>Harry looked at the white sandy beach that belonged to an island close to Tahiti that he had inherited with everything that Sirius had left him. It was probably where he had hidden away when he was on the run from the Ministry after Harry's third year at Hogwarts. In agreement with Hermione they had decided to first find a place where they could relax at a lovely beach before touring other parts of the world. They planned to go to Mexico after this, then Peru was on their travel plan, they wanted to see some sights of the USA, both muggle and magical and then they would head on to Japan.<p>

Hermione insisted on Australia and New Zealand and Harry was looking forward to see koala bears and kangaroos. They would stop in India and take up an invitation of Parvati to spend some time at the Patil home there that belonged to their import company. They would coordinate it with their old classmate to have a week together there. From there they planned to stop by in Russia and China. In Europe they wanted to visit Greece and Italy for sure and Fleur had offered them to spend a joint holiday in one of the vacation homes of her family in Monaco.

It would take a long time to see everything that they wanted to see, but they had the time. They were in no hurry to take up jobs, as they could simply work on combining muggle things with magic to bring the wizarding world into the twentieth century and prepare for the step into the twenty first century.

Right now though, his main thought processes were on the beautiful girl lying on her beach towel next to him in just a very small blue bikini. He certainly appreciated the sight. They had been playing in the sea for a while before going back to their towels. With the food supplies that Dobby sent them once a week by elf magic, they wouldn't have to worry about eating like kings during all their travels. It was amazing what the house elves could do if they wanted to help their families.

Hermione had got used to the idea that Dobby wanted to work for Harry, even if she would still use her fame to make the wrongness of house elf abuse a topic that needed to be brought out into the open and changed. Thanks to some talks with Dobby she understood that she had taken the wrong approach with SPEW. She didn't take the wishes of the house elves into consideration and that the change had to be accepted by them. So, as a compromise, she would work on giving them better working conditions and giving them more rights against abusive masters. Not to mention that change took time. It needed to start somewhere, but you couldn't force your opinion on others, even if you might be in the right. To have success, you needed to convince people of something. They had to want the change.

"What are you thinking about?" Hermione asked.

"How lucky I am to be here with you and how we won't have to starve wherever our travel plans take us next," Harry answered honestly.

"Yes, Dobby would make sure of that," she agreed chuckling, "And I agree with you about being lucky to be here with you. It's a wonderful place."

"Yes, it makes me happy to know that Sirius, even if he was on the run, could retreat here for a while to recover. I wish he had survived, but I've long learned that what if's don't give you any peace of mind. Therefore I'll try to concentrate on the here and now and only take the past to learn from it, not to dwell on it," Harry told her.

"And what are you learning from your past?" Hermione asked.

Harry rolled onto his side and over her.

"That I would be a fool to not enjoy our time together, as it could be too short to waste any of it," Harry declared and kissed his girlfriend passionately.

Whatever would happen, they would face it together. And once Harry found the courage to spring the question, he would hopefully be able to put the diamond ring that he had found at the Potter family vault, and which had been the traditional engagement ring for the Potter heir for ages, onto the finger of just this girl.

The hunt they had started in August last year was over. Their war was over. They only had to work for a better future now. And that was something he was very willing to do, as long as this wonderful girl that owned his heart was by his side.

* * *

><p><strong>Nearly the end :)<strong>


	9. The Fate of Dumbledore's Portrait

**And here is the promised scene with the Portrait :)**

* * *

><p><strong>The Fate of Dumbledore's Portrait<strong>

Hermione and Fleur met outside of the entrance to the headmistress's office, which was protected by the gargoyle. Professor McGonagall had given Hermione the current password easily and had excused herself from the impending judgement onto the old fool that could have very likely damned their world with his secrets. She didn't have and pity for him. Hermione gave the password 'Unity' and both young woman went up to the office. There they found the portraits of the previous headmasters and headmistresses assembled, with the one of Dumbledore hanging next to the one of Armando Dippet.

"Miss Granger and Miss Weasley, what a nice surprise. But where is Harry? I need to talk to him," Dumbledore greeted them.

"He won't ever talk to you again after the way you betrayed him became clear, you old bastard," Hermione opened the volley.

"Really, you should show Professor Dumbledore respect, young lady," the portrait of Armando Dippet commented indigenised.

"Oh, shut up. Had you gone through what that stupid old man did, just because he couldn't believe that his interpretation of certain pieces of information was the only one that could be right, you wouldn't care for proper manners either," Hermione snapped.

"Then could you enlighten us to his supposed crimes, my dear?" Dillys Derwent asked, "I thought he had fought against the leader of the dark side in this war."

"Gladly," Hermione said with an evil glint in her eyes and started telling the previous headmasters, while Fleur hexed Dumbledore's portrait silent so he couldn't interrupt, what kind of things Dumbledore had done to her and Harry, what his idiocy had cost their world, how many people had died because he couldn't share information and ask those with more knowledge than him in certain areas.

To say that the other portraits were shocked was an understatement.

"Dear Merlin, that's horrible," Derwent commented, "I certainly understand your anger towards Albus then. To think that he condoned the drugging of students and didn't act on known abuse of a child."

"It gets better, Headmistress Derwent, he had to be part of the scheme that kept Harry under potions. After all, when we interviewed Madam Pomfrey why Harry never got treated for the things she must have spotted with how often he had to stay at the hospital wing, she told us that she complained about detected symptoms of abuse ever since his first year at Hogwarts and demanded that Harry was given the mandatory medical examination that all students had to get before school even started. But she was denied each and every time and her complaints to those that could have acted were made to disappear," Hermione revealed.

"Oui, the old man only wanted to be famous for defeating a second dark lord," Fleur commented, "Ze fact zat he condemned a child for his goals never caused him trouble sleeping at night. Well, we decided zat actions had to have consequences."

Hermione and Fleur looked at each other evilly and drew their wands, pointing them at Dumbledore's portrait.

"One moment please, let me get my portrait out of the way!" Dippet asked.

To the slight surprise of the two young women the portraits of the other headmasters, even the one of Phineas Niggelus Black were moved to the side magically and they had a free line to Dumbledore's portrait. Fleur undid the silencing charm and he protested the actions they were about to take.

"Please, everything I did was for the Greater Good. Tom had to be stopped," Dumbledore pleaded.

"You are the one that forced the man I love into an abusive home when it wasn't necessary at all. You were the one that ignored that he had an expert curse breaker at hand in Bill Weasley. You let Ron potion Harry and me with love potions, just to let your little sycophants get what they wanted. You ignored that Molly Weasley was round the bend and should have been closely monitored for her inability to accept that her world view was twisted. The wards of Hogwarts should have been able to not only detect the horcruxes that were inside the walls of this school, they should have also caught the blood quills that Umbridge used to torture Harry with. He had a permanent scar on the back of his hand from that. But for you it didn't matter. Why would you care for a boy that you had decided had to die a martyr's death, just because you didn't know another way to deal with horcruxes than a book that is considered a joke among cursebreakers? No, you don't deserve any mercy, as you never showed those people that needed help even a hint of it.

"Sirius, Remus, Harry, Neville, the students that suffered the abuse from Snape in his Potions classes and I could go on. Fleur, are you ready?" Hermione asked.

"Ready," Fleur confirmed.

Both witches concentrated their magic and unleashed white hot flames at the portrait of Dumbledore, who couldn't flee from it for some reason. The flames took five minutes to die down and in the end there was only a pile of smouldering ash on the floor. Then, to their surprise, from the pile of ash a very small portrait appeared again, with a very different picture of the former headmaster.

"Ah, that would be the security measure of all portraits of the headmasters setting in," Dippet informed them, "Don't worry though. If a portrait was destroyed for justified reasons it is returned to show the amount of positive influence that the headmaster it shows had on Hogwarts. As many mistakes as Albus might have had, he was the one that protected the children during the first war and kept Hogwarts as the only safe place in Britain. His picture though will show his true character for all eternity now. Fitting that he's dressed in the sinner's robes," Dippet explained.

The robes Dumbledore wore now were dark grey and very unflattering. He also wore a cap with the word 'Sinner' printed on it, and as much as he tried, he couldn't take it off of his head. Then a house elf appeared and took the portrait to the end of the line of portrait, where it was put on the wall again, not able to voice its complaints about the treatment it received.

"The ability to speak will only be returned to Albus if he's asked a direct question and he will be forced to answer directly and truthfully. No more half-truths and evasions," Derwent informed the two.

"Good, it's nothing less that he deserves," Hermione declared.

"I think you should go and see you boyfriend, my child. I think spending some time with him will do you good," Derwent commented with a wink, which made Hermione smirk.

Oh, yes, spending time with Harry to celebrate their NEWTs in private would certainly do her a world of good. Fleur decided that she would do the same with her husband and both witches left the office. Once the door had closed behind them, Derwent and Dippet looked at each other.

"Should we inform Minerva about this?" Dippet asked.

"I don't think it's necessary. She will have expected it when she gave the girl the password. But we should make sure that all new headmasters of the future take Albus as a bad example of how you have to take responsibility for your actions. After all, he won't get rid of the sinner's robes until his positive advice outweighs his crimes. And you know how long it took Phineas to reach that point," Derwent commented.

"Will you stop rubbing that under my nose? I at least only needed two decades for that. And I didn't nearly cause the victory of a dark lord that I partly created by my actions. I may have disadvantaged those not of pureblood status, but I never went as far as harming a child, while I was headmaster," Black protested.

The other portraits sniggered at that. Yes, it took a lot of time to get rid of the sinner's robes. Albus didn't like it one bit. He sat in his unflattering robes and pouted at the injustice of everything.

* * *

><p><strong>And that's the end of this story. Thanks for reading.<strong>


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